The Rhine in Time
This really is an amazing slice of history – we see landscape paintings of the Rhine shoreland from the 1800s accompanied by photographs of the same locations taken in 2014.
On display until 11 October 2015 at the Spielzeug Welten Museum in Basel, Switerland, is almost the entire series of gouache landscape paintings of the Rhine Voyage by Johann
Ludwig (Louis) Bleuler (1792–1850). In a total of 80 sheets, Bleuler and his students portrayed the river along its length of 1238.8km. From the sources of the Rhine at Lake Toma to the estuary into the North Sea near Rotterdam, Bleuler recorded the towns, the variety of landscapes and the standards of transport technology, with meticulous attention to detail and great painterly sensitivity, therefore succeeding in creating an amazing new genre in landscape art.
Gouache painting
Gouache is the short term for gouache painting as well as for the pictures painted in that style. Gouache paint is a watersoluble colourant made of coarsely grounded pigments with the addition of chalk. Gum Arabic is used as binding agent. Gouache paint can be used for opaque and glazing painting techniques. The first use of gouache-like paints is documented in early medieval illumination. In former times it was mostly used for scene painting and decorative painting. As late as the 15th century, the technique was used by renowned artists. Raffael, Tizian and Dürer used gouache for studies and sketches, while other artists used it for grounding. Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall among others are famous exponents of modern gouache painting.
The Rheinwerk of Johann Ludwig Bleuler
Bleuler’s depictions always show people occupied with typical local
activities. They chop wood, hunt, mow the meadow, tend livestock and draw water from a well. The popular success of the works was due not least to the applied techniques used. The scenes were reproduced in detail using the aquatint etching technique. The prints were hand-coloured using opaque gouache paints. Thus, the pictures are reminiscent of paintings of the Old Masters. The artistic maturity and perfection evident in each scene is highly impressive.
At the same time, the subsequent colouring of the pictures meant that they conformed to the prevailing style of the Biedermeier period. The sketches made for many of the 80 scenes are unlikely to have been made only during good weather, however Bleuler’s audience, coming from the wealthy urban upper class and the nobility, wanted to enjoy travel scenes set against an atmosphere of fair weather with sunny blue skies.
First and foremost Bleuler intended to create a beautiful picture book, a kind of neat traveller’s souvenir for upper-class people, who in the 19th century were able to afford these journeys. The original subscription book of the Rheinwerk, (which is displayed in the exhibition), shows that the royal families of England, France and Prussia as well as the Tsar of Russia were among his purchasers. Even today, 24 of the original 26 gouaches of the Rheinwerk that were ordered are still hanging on the walls of the private apartments of England’s Queen Elizabeth II in Windsor Castle.
Johann Ludwig Bleuler and his art school
Bleuler was born on 12 February 1792 in Feuerthalen, the second
son child of the then-famous Swiss landscape painter Johann Heinrich Bleuler (1758–1823) and his wife Anna Bleuler-Toggenburger (c. 1765–1823).
Bleuler received an intensive technical and artistic training in his father’s art publishers. After his father died he founded his own art publishers in Schaffhausen. The location was well-considered. Tourism was on the increase in Switzerland, and the Rhine Falls of Schaffhausen were a main attraction that, for the time, had good transport connections. With the slogan Bergluft macht frei (mountain air makes you free) a new romantic idea was born. But English poets like Lord Byron and Percy Shelley also contributed to spreading an image of Switzerland far beyond the borders of the country. The special feature of Switzerland, in comparison to Austria, was its role as a political and societal model in a post-revolutionary era.
Bleuler relocated to Laufen Castle and established a manufactory and art school, and great Swiss artists like Egidius Federle, Konrad Corradi, Johann Jakob Schmidt and Rudolf Weinmann worked there temporarily.
From 1821 Johann Ludwig Bleuler called himself Louis. His numerous study trips to Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Amsterdam, Paris and Stockholm made him an artist with urbane taste. However, as a serious businessman he was not averse to advertising his publishing house’s products and to searching for customers.
As part of the political revolutions in the mid-19th century, Louis got into financial troubles that brought him to the brink of ruin. A glutted market and new reproduction techniques contributed to his problems, and photography was well on the way to becoming a new visual medium.
Photographs of the Rhine voyage
Looking on the gouaches of Johann Ludwig (Louis) Bleuler, one can discover a lot of things: a ruin here, an early steamboat there. Because his scenes represented places realistically, it is possible to determine exactly where he was at the time.
This enabled photographer Christoph Markwalder and his assistant Ms
Moser to trace Bleuler’s Rhine voyage. They used modern resources, such as Google Maps and drones, but also traditional methods, like walking, as he had done. This meant they managed to depict today’s view of
42 of the places – sometimes with frightening or surprising developments. The glacier that has since Bleuler’s
day almost disappeared documents climate change. And the straightening of the Rhine has lead to the altered landscape of today. The growth of many villages and cities is evident, but also the uncontrolled forest growth. Bleuler painted castles and mansions on top of rocks. Today they are totally surrounded by woods. It is also surprising that some ruins of that time are shining in new splendour today. On the other hand, there are places that have hardly changed in nearly
200 years. The fabulous exhibition displays the results of today’s Rhine voyage next to the gouaches, so that they can be compared directly.
The collector Adulf Peter Goop
Adulf Peter Goop was a passionate collector who, over several decades, built up a collection of about 4,000 works of art, mainlyh valuable paintings, drawings and graphic works, dealing with Liechtenstein, the Rhine Valley and the artists living there. In 2010 he gave his entire collection to Liechtenstein as a present, saying: “I owe so much to the country of Liechtenstein, my home country. With this donation I would like to return some of it!”.
Further information
Spielzeug Welten Museum Basel Steinenvorstadt 1
4051 Basel
Switzerland
Web: www.swmb.museum