Ernst Ferdinand Oehme

Oehme’s vibrant watercolor shows a view of the mountainous Rigi area of Switzerland, which he visited in August 1825 on his return home to Dresden after a three-year stay in Italy. The artist used clear contours to define the unfolding mountain ridges, which are stacked in colored tiers, thereby communicating an expansive recession away from the viewer toward distant snowcapped peaks. The sheet is part of a group of watercolors and paintings based on the sketches that Oehme made during the trip. The finished works focus on the austerity and vastness of the Alpine terrain, omitting all references to the tourism industry that flourished in the region at the time.