Lars Jacob von Röök, Vy över en italiensk by
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15000 SEK
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Beskrivning
LARS JACOB VON RÖÖK
1778-1867
Vy över en italiensk by vid havet
Signerad L. Röök. KOl på papper, 36,5 x 21 cm.
Together with Gustaf Söderberg (1799-1875), Lars Jacob von Röök is today recognized as a pioneer of Swedish plein air painting, both preceeding Gustaf Wilhelm Palm (1810-90) by some twenty years, internationally the most acclaimed Swedish plein-air painter of the first half of the nineteenth century. The majority of von Röök´s known work, which is still in the possession of his descendents are executed in Italy which he visited as many as five times, 1808, 1815-18, 1820-24, 1826-30 and 1834.
Von Röök graduated as a military engineer in 1795. The same year he was elected Page of Honor to King Gustaf IV Adolf whom he accompanied on a number of official journeys on the continent. Von Röök, however, was more inclined towards the arts and in 1809 he resigned from his military position as officer. The same year he wrote the catalogue of the painting collection at Finspong castle, one of Sweden´s most famous art collections. In 1811 he was made Servant to the King and in 1814 Embasy Cavalier and served as attaché at the Swedish Legation in Madrid under J. G. De la Gardie (1814-15) and from 1815 at the Swedish Legation in Florenz under Claes Lagersvärd. In Madrid he had the good fortune to have met Goya.
In 1830 he was employed at Kongl. Museum, in Stockholm where he rearranged the collection on modern foreign practice and published several catalogues of the collection. In 1837 he was appointed Court intendent and in 1839 he was elected to the board at the Royal Academy. Von Röök was also active as an architect. He designed a gazebo in the park at Finspång Castle in 1821 and Kåreholm Mannerhouse built in 1823. He also made several proposals for a building to house Nationalmuseum (inaugurated 1866). In 1850 he resigned but remained curator of King Oscar I´s private collection whom also engaged him in the decoration of Haga Castle in Stockholm.
Already during his first journey to Italy in 1808, von Röök moved in artists circles in Rome. In his extensive diaries he mentions that he had sketched in Tivoli together with the French landscape painter Pierre Athanes Chauvin (T. Gunnarsson, Friluftsmåleri före friluftsmåleriet. Oljestudien i svenskt landskapsmåleri 1800-1850, 1989, p. 240, note 24). He also mentions that he met the German landscape painters J. A. Koch, J. C. Reinhardt and M. Von Rohden and the Dane J. L. Lund. During his second journey to Italy he visited the German landscape painters F. L. Cartel and Vogel von Vogelstein in Rome and in 1821, on his third stay in Italy, Michallon and Granet together with J. C. Dahl. He even payed a visit to Canova´s studio in Rome. In 1819 he published "Plan af Pompeji med beskrivning" [A description of Pompei] and in 1824 Anteckningar under en resa på Sicilien af en svensk [Notes on a journey to Sicily by a Swede), with six lithographs after his drawings, based on a journey he had conducted in April to May the previous year together with a count Wachtmeister (for an extensive study of this publication see C. Lidström, Berättare på resa. Svenska resenärers reseberättelser 1667-1829, 2015, pp. 514-32, 2015).
On his fourth visit to Italy between 1826-30 he functioned as administrator of the dukedom Galliera northwest of Bologna, created by Napoleon in 1813 for Josephine of Leuchtenburg, later Crownprincess of Sweden, daughter of his stepson Eugène de Beaugarnais, vice king of Italy. The dukedom incorporated a palace in Bologna which housed a painting collection known as the Galleria collection. In 1837 the dukedom was sold to the Vatican and the painting collection was moved to the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Several landscape drawings by von Röök from his stay in Bologna are known (University Library, Uppsala)..
There can be no doubt that von Röök was very talented as an artist, but he did not seek out to become a professional landscape painter. Contrary to a statement by the Finnish painter Alexander Lauréus in a letter from Rome to Carl Johan Fahlcrantz in 1822 that von Röök had said that it was not to late for him to set out on a career as an artist (he was then 44 years old) referring to Claude Lorrain who only begun painting at the age of forty (T..Stjernschantz, Alexander Laureus,. En konsthistorisk studie.,1915, p. 233), von Röök considered himself a dilettante.
Auktionsnummer:
303
Datum:
2018-12-05