"otto Wagner, Monk On A Mountain Path"

Otto WAGNER (1803, Torgau - 1861, Niederlöbnitz)
Monk on a mountain path
Pen drawing, brown ink and brown wash heightened with white.
Signed lower right Otto Wagner.
Dimensions: H. 35 cm, W. 28 cm
Dimensions with frame: H. 56 cm, W. 45.5 cm
Carved walnut frame.

Our drawing depicts a monk walking along a steep, wooded mountain path.
At the end of a journey that is undoubtedly trying, the man of God is approaching his destination, a church nestled between two rock faces in the background. He is wrapped in his cloak, his head protected by his hood, and carries his meager viaticum suspended from a stick on his shoulder.
The composition is striking for its dense layout, which abounds with the multiple details of wild nature. This highly illustrative approach, where the smallest space is treated with a pen or wash, probably stems from the artist's training as a decorator.

Otto WAGNER (1803, Torgau -1861, Niederlöbnitz)

German painter and draughtsman of landscapes and architecture, engraver and lithographer, as well as decorative painter at the court of Dresden.
Trained at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, he studied with the painter Johann Gottfried Jentzsch.
From 1830, he began a study tour through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, where he left behind numerous views of Rome captured in the style of Canaletto.
Member of the Rudel-Verein group of artists (also known as the Sonnabend Club), he also served as a theatrical scenery painter at the court of Saxony. He is the author of a large number of picturesque views of the kingdom of Saxony and Thuringia, published from 1838 in the series Picturesque and Romantic Germany and Hikes through Thuringia.