Frédérik Rohde (1816-1886) Lake Como, A Terrace Of The Villa Giulia In Bellagio Italy

Frédérik ROHDE
(Copenhagen, 1816 - Copenhagen, 1886)
Lake Como, a terrace of the Villa Giulia in Bellagio
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
H. 26.5 cm; L. 39 cm
Located, dated and signed on a label on the stretcher
Dated lower right - July (?) 1860

Frédérik Rohde trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen between 1830 and 1834, with the painter d history Lund and the landscape architects Kobke and Büntzen. He himself will specialize in landscape, continuing the spirit of the Golden Age of Danish painting. It was in Germany that he made his first trip in 1842, being based in Munich until 1847. During this stay he traveled to Switzerland and Italy and thus painted sites of the great Italian lakes, mainly Como and Guard. Alongside many snow landscapes, the bulk of his work consists of views of Italy, where he will regularly visit until the end of his life. Dated works thus tell us that it was on Lake Como at least in 1846, 1860 and 1862. In particular, a drawing kept in the Charterhouse of San Martino museum, and another passed on the market of art confirm his presence in Bellagio in June and July 1860. Renowned for his often quite original points of view, Rhode is no exception to his rule here with a perspective view of an arm of the lake bordered by a terrace of the Villa Giulia, located in Bellagio, at the point that separates the two arms of Lake Como. The villa, built around 1800 in a neo-classical style, had a park that stretched from one shore to the other of the lake. King Leopold I of Belgium acquired it in 1851 from the Venini family. When Leopold died in 1865, the property passed to his son the Count of Flanders, who quickly sold it to Count Blome, an Austrian statesman. After passing through the hands of Polish and Romanian nobles at the beginning of the 20th century, it now belongs to the Bonecchi family.

Finally, it should be noted that Rohde was present at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1855, and counted among his students Vilhelm Hammershoi.