Louis François Cassas ”gorge Of Finstermuenz In Tyrol With Remains Of A Protective Wall“

This is a rare watercolor view of the Splügen Pass, short Splügen, (Italian Passo dello Spluga), which located at a height of 2115 meters and connects Splügen in the Swiss Rheinwald in the canton of Grisons with Chiavenna in the Italian province from Sondrio and Lake Como. The pass crosses the watershed line between the Rhine and the PO and the border between Italy and Switzerland.
The author of this watercolor is the renowned and highly cited French landscape painter Louis-François Cassas (1756 - 1827). He was a distinguished French landscape painter, sculptor, architect, archaeologist and antiquarian born in Azay-le-Ferron, in the Indre department of France.

Besides his architectural and archaeological drawings and sketches, he drew many studies of costumes, views and processions, as well as scenes of daily life, plants and animals of all kinds. He also exhibited views from his travels in the "salons", which were periodic art exhibitions sponsored by the French Royal Academy, in 1804 and 1814, and published picturesque views of the principal sites and monuments of Greece, of Sicily and the Seven Hills of Rome, thirty parts of which had already been published in 1813.

Literature: (in French) Emmanuel Bénézit (ed.): Critical and documentary dictionary of painters, sculptors, designers and engravers of all times and all countries, vol. 8. Neuaufl. Greend, Paris 1999; (in German) Thieme / Becker "Allgemeines Kuenstlerlexikon", Leipzig, 1999.

Inscription: signed lower left under the image and titled in French: "Via mala en regardans la Splugen".

Technique: watercolor on paper, laid down by the artist on another paper, on which is signed and titled by him.

Measurements: picture 13.3 x 18 cm, unframed 18.8 x 24 cm, framed 20.6 x 26cm.

Condition: in very good condition.