2 Watercolor Drawings By Benjamin Schlick: Fountain In Spoleto, Vault Of Lucca Cathedral

Schlick initially studied at the School of Architecture of the Academy of Fine Arts, but in 1818 he received support to travel and study theater architecture and stage machinery abroad. The trip took place in Paris and London, and the support was renewed two years later. Schlick achieved success with his theater interiors, theater machinery, and miniature drawings. In Denmark, however, he was received with suspicion, and after a dispute in 1824 over his person, he settled permanently in Paris,[8] where he presented himself as Benjamin Gotthold, Count Schlick. In Paris, he was commissioned to redecorate the Théâtre de l'Odéon and the Théâtre des Variétés. For Charles X, he produced an album of color architectural drawings of Parisian theaters. In 1830, he designed the court theater in Karlsruhe for the Grand Duke of Baden. In Rome, he decorated a theater for Prince Torlonia. Other works include drawings of 42 houses in Pompeii and Herculaneum with their frescoes. For the King of Prussia, he invented a scenograph that allowed "one to give perspective to the facade and wings of a building."[Schlick used these drawings extensively as gifts for royalty across the continent, and they aroused great admiration. Over time, he was considered French and received a substantial life pension from the French state. He died on September 24, 1872. On the back of the mount, the inscriptions repeat those on the back of the watercolors. It reads: Fountain of L....... in Spoleto, October 30, 1822, Romagna. Below: Vault of the portico of Lucca Cathedral from June to August 1831. The writings are in Schlick's handwriting without signature.