Frederik Marinus Kruseman Dutch, 1816-1882

Among the observable phenomena with a transcendental significance, the motif of Gothic architecture became more and more prominent in Romantic painting. In many cases this theme is seen as a reference to a long-lost age of Christian faith. However, it was also the organic aspects of Gothic architecture that appealed to Romantic artists. The feeling that it is virtually a God-made object, in forms almost identical to the growth of leaves and branches, made this a popular subject matter.

Kruseman was using this motif already in the 50’s, when he made several paintings of the ruins of the Abbey of Villers-la-Ville. The overgrown ruin, flanked by trees, is strongly reminiscent of the work of the German, early Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), as in Ruins of abbey at Eldena, dated circa 1824.
Friedrich also used this motif more often, apparently casually, but always too prominently present to be a merely picturesque relic of a bygone age.

The present lot by Kruseman reveals the true Romantic spirit of the artist and makes this painting one of the highlights of the Hoch Romantik.