Description:

dated lower left: "24 August 1835"
numbered on the verso: 29
oil on paper
185 x 226 mm

Provenance:

Hofjägermeister Thomas Fearnley (only son of the artist) 1841-1927
Shipowner Thomas Fearnley (grandson of the artist), 1880 –1961
Private collection, Oslo, 1960’s - 2017

Note:

Taken from an album assembled by the artist's grandson, this so-called ‘Naturvei’ (nature study) was made towards the end of Fearnley's 1835 trip through the Swiss Alps. The artist had left Brunnen a few weeks earlier, traveling down to Meiringen and Oberhasli, towards the Rhône glacier, and then via Wetterhorn to the Grindelwald Glacier. Like many of his oil sketches, Fearnley incised the date in the wet paint using the end of his brush. From an annotated pencil drawing made on the same day, we know that this was made on the Kleine Scheidegg, a mountain pass situated beyond the Grindelwald Glacier, between the Eiger and Lauberhorn peaks. Many of the works made on this journey were used as studies for his painting executed in 1838, "The Grindelwald Glacier", which was sold to the Nasjonalgalleriet in Oslo the following year.