Südländische Küstenlandschaft. 1875.
Oil on canvas.
cm ( in).

Michael Haubtmann studied both painting under Maximilian Haushofer as well as law at the university in Prague from 1861 to 65, completing with a doctorate. In the following he was student of the landscape painter Julius Lange in Munich from 1869 to 1872. For study purposes Haubtmann traveled to Switzerland and Italy before he finally settled in Munich. From here he went on numerous journeys, from Northern Scandinavia to Egypt. The different impressions as well as the results of archeological studies in Greece influence Haubtmann‘s multifaceted landscape paintings. His painting is geared at the Düsseldorf School, particularly the art of Oswald Achenbach.

Italy had been considered the perfect place for the culturally-minded, for architects, artists, poets and scientists, as early as of Renaissance, but especially as of the mid 18\up5 th century. The reawaken interest in the ancient world makes the places of Greece culture in Southern Italy and Sicily places of pilgrimage. Johann Joachim Winckelmann founded the still young science archeology in order to learn about the ancient sites. In terms of literature, the stil fascinatinating travelogues by Johann Gottfried Seume („Spaziergang nach Syrakus“, 1803) and Goethe‘s “Italienische Reise“ (ca. 1817) deliver proof of the German obsession with Italy. For the preface of his travel report Goethe even chose the classic “Et in Arcadia ego“ and thus places the real Arcadia in Italy. In the early 19\up5 th century Rome became a sort of German artist colony, the famous “Caffè Greco“ was the hotspot for painters and poets, the so-called ‘Deutschrömer‘ (German Romans). A journey to Italy is part of the general cultural canon, studying in Rome is obligatory for almost all painters.
Michael Haubtmann also went on his first study trip through Switzerland to Italy. In 1875 he captured the classical 19\up5 th century yearning for Italy in the view of a southern coast: the stretch of a southern Italian coast is bathed in the warm light of the setting sun. The eyes wander across the rocky cliff with a remote village and the calm sea on which a tiny boat with white sails is floating. The sun has already set on the idyllic bay in the foreground, in left two women are picking wild herbs. With this magnificent painting Haubtmann manages to spark the yearning for the south even in today’s observer. [CB].