(Frankfurt am Main 1811–1893)
A view of the Bay of Palermo with Monte Pellegrino, Sicily, on the reverse stamp of Kunsthandlung J. P. Schneider, Frankfurt on the stretcher, with several number labels, oil on paper on canvas, 31 x 44 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
Collection Luise Morgenstern born Bansa (1824-1913), Frankfurt/Main, widow of the artist;
Her estate sale, Frankfurter Kunstverein, 19 November 1918, Lot 37;
art dealer Wilhelm Schumann, Frankfurt (according to Auction catalogue Hahn, client 535, as well as the Number on the revers);
Kunsthaus Heinrich Hahn, Frankfurt/Main, 3 December 1940, Lot 85b;
Kunsthandlung J. P. Schneider jr, Frankfurt/Main, 1993;
Private Collection Germany.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Carl Morgenstern, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthandlung J. P. Schneider, Frankfurt am Main, 14 June - 10 July 1993, no. 12.
Carl Morgenstern und die Landschaftsmalerei seiner Zeit, Ausstellungskatalog Museum Giersch, Frankfurt/Main 2011, p. 71, ill. 27.

The view of the bay of Palermo with Monte Pellegrino in the background belongs to a group of oil sketches on paper made by Carl Morgenstern on his first trip to Italy in 1834/35. The freshness and quality of these direct impressions from southern Italy are testament to Morgenstern’s great pictorial skill and still have the power to impress viewers today.

Carl Morgenstern came from a distinguished Frankfurt-based family of painters. He was educated by his father, the landscape painter Johann Friedrich Morgenstern (1777-1844). At a young age, Morgenstern was in close contact with fellow artists such as Carl Rottmann, Heinrich Bürkel and his cousin Christian Ernst Bernhard Morgenstern, who inspired him to undertake nature studies outdoors.
In 1834, Carl Morgenstern embarked on his first trip to Italy, which had a decisive influence on his work.
After a few months in Rome, during which the young painter moved in artistic circles composed both of Germans and international members alike, he travelled with a group of painter friends along the coast to Sicily, via Naples, in the summer of 1835.
On this journey, he produced a series of oil studies and sketches, most of which came onto the market after Morgenstern’s death. In his studio, they served as the base material and reference works for larger paintings.

There is no doubt that Morgenstern captured this view on the spot itself, using oil on paper. He probably laid the paper down on canvas himself once he had returned to Frankfurt.
Warm, southern light pours over the bay of Palermo and touches the lonely monk in the foreground, who turns his back on the observer and thus becomes a kind of figure with whom to identify. The pure blue of the sky and the sea are interspersed with delicate golden rays of the evening light. This clear colouring and the balanced composition lend the work a powerful sense of calmness and attraction. It combines the typical freshness and immediacy of a sketch with the balance of a finished composition.