Eduard Magnus, Portrait of a Young Italian Woman in a Landscape with Open Water, 1800s, Oil on Canvas, Framed

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Inscribed on the reverse of the stretcher. A half-length portrait of a beautiful woman against a landscape that seems anything … Read more Inscribed on the reverse of the stretcher. A half-length portrait of a beautiful woman against a landscape that seems anything but Berlin. How can that be? Magnus was a Berliner and very active there. His works now hang in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and, of course, the National Gallery in Berlin. His father, who founded one of the predecessor institutions of Deutsche Bank, was keen for his sons to be educated according to their inclinations. While his two older brothers took over the bank, Leopold Eduard Samuel Magnus turned to painting and traveled to France, Egypt, Spain, and especially Italy, where he spent a total of eight years. Our small but exquisitely executed painting, focusing on the subject's face, also appears to have been created in the area around Rome. Indeed, a large number of his portraits exude a southern European atmosphere and a relaxed ease, which can sometimes be attributed to the painter's financial independence. Hills and bare mountaintops frame the young woman, whose gold jewelry suggests the 1830s. An open body of water in the middle ground is bordered by a small house with a bridge next to it and fed by a stream on the right edge. The facial features are reminiscent of the soprano Virginia Livia Frege (1818–1891), whom Magnus also portrayed. This piece is attributed to the mentioned designer/maker. It has no attribution mark and no
official proof of authenticity,
however it is well documented in design history. I take full responsibility for any authenticity



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