The Sabil Qaitbay in Jerusalem

Signed lower left: “H. Corrodi Jerusalem”

A painter of the European aristocracy and royal houses with studies in Baden Baden and Homburg as well as Rome, Hermann Corrodi kept the great tradition of Grand Tour landscape painting alive with skill and talent at the end of the 19th century. The son of the Swiss-German Vedutist Salomon, active in Rome since 1832, he is an exponent of the Roman artistic milieu that still retained its traditional connotations of internationality in the middle of the century. Linked to the Deutsch-Römer, in his formative years he gained important experience in Geneva with Alexandre Calame and Jacques Alfred van Muyden, in Paris with Ernest Meissonier and Jean-Léon Gérôme and in London with Lawrence Alma Tadema. An indefatigable traveller, he visited the most picturesque Italian locations in the footsteps of 18th-century tourists and crossed the Alps to Switzerland, Germany, France and England, and, in the wake of the Orientalist vogue, explored the Mediterranean and the Orient.

The rich study material collected during these journeys is the substrate from which refined visions composed in the studio according to the rules of classical landscape painting are created. Particularly popular subjects are replicated with variations of light, atmospheric context and viewpoints according to that Nordic sensibility that Corrodi shares with his collectors. Vegetation and buildings are forced and deformed to construct the settings of the most iconic monuments and natural sceneries. Despite his limited exhibition activity, which included major international shows in Paris, Munich, Berlin, London, Chicago and Melbourne and exhibitions at the London French Gallery between 1879 and 1902, his success is well documented in the international press of his time and is reflected in a decidedly abundant but difficult to date production. The paintings in fact replicate subjects of particular fortune several times over the course of time and rarely show a date, thus making the definition of a chronological path complex. Views of the East only appear, however, after 1878.

Numerous views of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, inspired by a long journey that in 1877 had taken in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Dead Sea and the most important places in the Holy Land, are to be found in the eighties. These were subjects that had particularly impressed the German royal house: The Holy Fountain of the Dome of the Rock had entered the collections of the Grand Duke of Baden, a nocturne on the Dead Sea had been purchased by Empress Augsburg, who had also commissioned a triptych with views of the holy places, and the Grotto of Christ on Lake Tiberias by Emperor Wilhelm. Among the subjects of the Holy Land is the Sabil Qaitbay (fig.1), a drinking fountain on the west side of the Temple Mount or Esplanade of Mosques. The small building topped with a dome was erected by probably Egyptian craftsmen in 1482 at the behest of Sultan Qaytbay from whom it takes its name with the purpose of providing refreshment to pilgrims and devotees. Although signed “H. Corrodi Jerusalem”, the painting depicting the fountain is almost certainly made in the studio on the basis of material collected on the journey and probably after 1883 when the small building was restored to its original form. As usual, the artist constructs a “styled” setting around the monument, which is reproduced with variations. While the characteristic dome decorated with arabesques is faithfully rendered, the rectangular structure supporting it lacks the grated windows that make its surface transparent. On the left, one can recognise the Al-Ashrafiyya madrasa building against the backdrop of which stands a fake minaret. The trees, which line the esplanade, are displaced around the Sabil and reflected in an imaginary pool of water to create a sort of oasis where figures in Middle Eastern dress rest.

In a refined interplay of colour references, Corrodi harmonises water, sky, trees, buildings and human figures, all of which contribute to conveying a feeling of warmth in the sunlit areas of coolness and tranquillity in the shaded areas. In the left-hand part of the painting, the contours of the buildings fade into the sky enveloped in a dramatic golden light, which subsides in the right-hand part constructed with an earthy palette.