1198 Views |  Like

Solomon Corrodi among Dreams and Memories

The Italian Journey by Goethe is an exemplary book illustrating how Italy was perceived at the end of the Seventeenth century not only as the thousand-year old cradle of culture and art but also as an essential part of a gentleman’s training (whether he boasted aristocratic or middle-class origins), a formation that he needed to see through to the end in order to complete his own culture of beauty in his life. Following the publication of the first two volumes in 1817-1818 and of a third dedicated to Rome in 1829, the Journey became highly fashionable and turned into such a tourist boon that it sent the most extraordinary effects rippling throughout the whole Continent. It responded to the name of the Grand Tour.
There was such a longing to possess a visual memory of that enchanted place that generations of artists from half of Europe had to satisfy it for a whole century long with an ever-increasing production of views of the Classical destinations recommended by the German writer during his unparalleled journey undertaken from 1816 to 1817. His journey included cities like Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompei and marvellous spots along the Amalfi Coast as well as Sicily and the temples of Segesta and Agrigento, with Palermo, Taormina and Messina included for good measure. Postcards ante litteram that tell the story of a heart-rending and deep love for Italy that, two centuries later, is still producing such redeeming effects.
Among the main protagonists that most certainly augmented this nostalgic sentiment for Italy we may indeed include the Swiss artist, Salomon Corrodi, born in Fehraltorf near Zurich in 1810. In 1832, after an apprenticeship with the landscape painter, Johann Jacob Wetzel, he moved to Rome after first stopping in Genoa and, then, in Pisa. In the Eternal City, he was able to frequent the lively community of foreign artists such as Bertel Thorvaldsen, Joseph Anton Koch, Johann Christian Reinhart and Franz Catel. At the beginning of his career, the Swiss artist used oils but very soon switched to watercolour which he found to be more suited to his particular style since it enabled him to achieve exceedingly good results. He was thus soon able to reach a considerable level of success for his views of Rome and the Roman campagna, the Gulf of Naples, Ischia and the Ligurian Riviera as well as other places that he would visit during his travels.
In the exhibition organised in 1845 in honour of Tsar Nicholas I’s visit to Rome he asserted himself as one of the finest landscape artists and many of his paintings were acquired by the Tsar himself as well as his noble entourage. In the vibrant watercolour with Vesuvius seen from Posillipo the Swiss artist shows to the full his natural talent for reproducing the utmost luminosity of colour as may be witnessed in the streaks of light that fall upon the turquoise blue waters of the Gulf, thus outlining the theatrical image of the coastline with Vesuvius in the background and boats on the sea.