(Prenzlau 1737–1807 San Pietro di Careggio)
A wooded mountainous landscape with the Copper-Mill in Vietri
signed, inscribed and dated lower right: a Vietri pre[s]. de Salern[o]/ Hackert f. 1772,
oil on canvas, 63.5 x 87.2 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 14 May 2002, lot 111;
where acquired by the present owner

Exhibited:
Weimar, Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Jakob Philipp Hackert. Europas Landschaftsmaler der Goethezeit, 25 August – 2 November 2008, cat. no. 85;
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Jakob Philipp Hackert. Europas Landschaftsmaler der Goethezeit, 28 November 2008 – 15 February 2009, cat. no. 85

Literature:
C. De Seta, C. Nordhoff (eds.), Hackert, Naples 2005, pp. 128–129, no. 12, illustrated p. 32;
A. Stolzenburg (ed.), Jakob Philipp Hackert. Europas Landschaftsmaler der Goethezeit, exhibition catalogue, Ostfildern 2008, p. 337, no. 85, illustrated pp. 32, 129;

Claudia Nordhoff confirmed the attribution after examination of the present painting in the original in 2002 (written communication in copy, dated 7 July 2002).

The present painting depicts a collection of buildings situated at the foot of a mountain. At the right end of the outbuildings the mill wheel is set in motion by a stream of water coming from the higher area and filling the pond. A small group of figures have gathered in front of the doorstep of the mill, whilst a cattle herder and his dog are passing by. The landscape is gently lit, typical for Jakob Philipp Hackert and his contemporaries. After arriving in Rome in 1768, Hackert undertook a trip to Naples in 1770. According to Goethe, whom the artist befriended, Hackert fell ill and was advised to seek recovery in the nearby coastal villages of Vietri and Lacava. In their surroundings the 'Valle del Moline', the Valley of the Mills, was a popular destination and it is there that the present composition finds its origin.

Hackert’s body of work often contains multiple versions of pictorial motifs that were particularly popular with his clientele. The area of Lacava and Vietri offers a unique variety of plants, and the motif depicted by Hackert was an opportunity to present the diversity of this southern Italian landscape and its vegetation. According to Nordhoff this may have contributed to the composition’s success.

As the described studio practice by Nordhoff suggests, the present painting is part of a group of works of similar composition. Aside from minor differences, the present work relates to a watercolour, which is signed and dated 1770 and bears an inscription that identifies the building as the copper mill in Vietri. The watercolour is conserved in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden (inv. no. C 1963-1602). A year later, the artist composed a drawing in brown colour tones, depicting the copper mill from a closer point of view and altered the figures slightly. The drawing is dated to 1771 and privately owned (see C. Nordhoff, H. Reimer, Jakob Philipp Hackert, 1737–1807. Verzeichnis seiner Werke, Berlin, 1994, p. 267, 268, no. 647, illustrated p. 252). The watercolour and the drawing are a prelude to the present painting and to a similar work in oils on canvas which is dated 1773 and in a private collection (see C. Nordhoff, H. Reimer, ibid., 1994, p. 30, no. 76). Comparing the watercolour and the drawing with the two paintings it is noticeable how Hackert chose to set the mill in an extensive landscape in both canvasses. Apart from minor alterations, the most striking difference between the 1773 painting and the present work is the addition of a group of women doing laundry on the banks of the pond in the 1773 painting.

Trained by his father Philipp Hackert, the artist continued his studies at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. As a young artist Hackert drew inspiration from the 17th century Dutch landscape painters and the works of Claude Lorrain. Working in different areas and cities in Germany and Sweden, the artist departed for Italy in 1768, where he settled in Rome and joined the international circle of artists under the direction of Anton Raphael Mengs and Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Later Hackert worked for King Ferdinand IV of Naples and befriended Goethe, who edited and published Hackert’s memoirs posthumously.