Coastal landscape

The painting in a decorated gold frame shows a sailing boat close to a coast in front of a slightly cloudy sky. In the background an octagonal fortified building with a tower can be seen. The boat in the foreground is sailing under the Dutch flag. It is manned by three sailors, who are busy with the sail at this moment. The boat and mast are slightly tilted towards the coast. The sea is calm and the sail is not filled, allowing us to infer that only a faint wind is blowing. To the right of the boat, a few trees and parts of the coastal fortification are visible. Another boat sails on the horizon, to the left of the fortified building. Andreas Achenbach was a student at the Düsseldorf Academy for a short while. He was deeply impressed and inspired by Dutch landscape painting and by his travels to the North and Baltic Seas. As early as 1854, he was described in Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter’s ‘Kunstgeschichtlichen Briefen‘ (‘Art historical letters’) as the ‘master of land and sea’. Many more Nordic landscapes and marine paintings were to follow at that time, including this oil painting. Achenbach is considered one of the most important artists of the Düsseldorf school of painting and more generally an important representative of 19th century German painting.