Peter Birmann (1758-1844) Swiss School, The Cave Of Vicovaro, Tivoli, Gouache On Blue Paper

Peter Birmann
Basel 1758 – 1844

The Vicovaro Cave
Gouache on blue paper
29 x 47cm
Provenance: Kasimir Hagen, Cologne, his stamp (Lugt 4795) on the back
Exhibition: Europaïsche Zeichnungen zut Zeit Goethes, Goethe Museum, Düsseldorf, 2005, no. 3, p. 15.

A Swiss landscape artist, Birmann trained with his father, a stonemason, and then in the studios of various Swiss artists, including the landscape artist Johann Ludwig Aberli (1723 – 1786), who himself had been a student of Jean-George Wille in Paris and who had been interested in the philosophy of Salomon Gessner and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It was undoubtedly under his influence that Birmann developed his taste for colorful and romantic landscapes, a taste he continued to cultivate while working with the Swiss draftsman Abraham Louis Ducros and the Italian engraver Giovanni Volpato during his trip to Rome between 1781 and 1790. Returning to Basel in 1790, he opened a painting studio and specialized in landscapes, a field in which he trained his son Samuel (1793–1857), also a painter. He was also an art dealer.
Located near Tivoli, Vicovaro is a picturesque town north of Rome. Its caves, like those of Tivoli, attracted many artists in the 18th and 19th centuries. The romantic atmosphere and the spectacular chiaroscuro created by the accumulation of large rocks and the lush vegetation inspired Simon Denis and Jean-Charles Rémond, among other artists.
This drawing was exhibited in 2005 at the Goethe Museum in Düsseldorf and published in the exhibition catalogue (see photos).