Italian landscape with full moon

This richly detailed, portrait-format oil painting shows a pink-white bell tower in the moonlight of a starlit night. Although the Mediterranean tower is slightly obscured by trees, it attracts the viewer’s attention in the light of the rising and almost full moon. Below the tower on a sandy path, a group of four people, two men and two women, are visible in the semi-darkness. It seems they are conversing with a man on a donkey who has halted at the side of the path. We can see the back of the rider, who wears a hat and leans slightly backwards in the donkey’s saddle. Oswald Achenbach was a student at the Düsseldorf Academy from 1835 to 1841. His journeys to Italy set the course for his artistic development. There he gained inspiration for his Italian landscapes and cityscapes, which he preferred to motifs from his home country and which became the most important subject of his art. Achenbach placed a particular emphasis on the distribution of light and shadow. He is considered an influential representative of 19th century German painting.