Thomas Fearnley
Frederikshald 1802 – 1842 MunichLake Gossau, Salzburg
This striking watercolour is a recordo of one of Fearnley’s finest compositions, Lake Gossau, close to Salzburg in the Tyrol. Fearnley was in the region in the autumn of 1832 during his journey from Munich to Italy. Settling in Rome he spent June to September 1833 around Naples and Sorrento. In the autumn of 1833 he accompanied Hans Christian Anderson on a tour of the Albanian mountains. In early 1834 he returned to his studio in Rome and painted the first version of this subject (Sigurd Willoch, Maleren Thomas Fearnley, Oslo, 1932, illustrated page 121, the painting, signed and dated 1834, and measuring 127 x 176 cm is now in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm).
Fearnley spent the years 1836 – 1838 in London and it seems he revisited the subject here, exhibiting a painting of Lake Gosau at the British Institution’s exhibition of 1837. An old inscription on the backboard dates our watercolour to 1836 and states that it was executed in London. It therefore must have been made at the same time as the oil that was exhibited in London.