An Album with 30 Drawings and one Sketch on 66 Pages, three of the drawings extending over two full pages, including views of or near Zurich, Lago Maggiore (2), Florence (2), Olevano (4), Civitella, Rome (12), Sorrento, Capri, Paestum, and Nerano near Ama

From the age of fourteen Preller was educated at the Weimar drawing school founded by Goethe. After meeting the latter in 1821 Preller was granted a fund by Grand Duke Carl August of Weimar to study in Antwerp in 1824-6. Following further funds from Carl August, Preller first travelled to Italy in 1826, studying in Milan, and establishing himself in Rome in 1828 among fellow artists like Joseph Anton Koch, Johann Christian Reinhart, Bonaventura Genelli and Friedrich Overbeck. Back in Weimar in 1831, he tought at the local drawing school. Following journeys in northern Europe afterwards, he embarked on his second Italian tour in 1859 together with his wife Marie and their son Friedrich, who was also his pupil. The present lot bears an interesting witness to this journey, including an agenda beginning at Weimar on 23 September 1859. Travelling via Frankfurt, Zurich (the first drawing in the album is of a hotel there) and Lucerne, the family reaches Italy on 29 September. Via Genoa, they reach Florence on 2 October, where they visit the Uffizi. Casa Baldi at Olevano, known for its hospitable owner, was visited on 28 October, and they settle in Rome on 30 October. While the drawings continue in date, the itinerary lacks a page and continues in May of 1860. From the dating of the drawings it is clear that certainly the month of November is spent in Rome. The last drawings in the album are views of Sorrento dated May 1860, and of Capri, Paestum and Nerano dated June 1860. The portraits include that of fellow German artist Franz Theodor Grosse (1829-1891). The present lot is only one of the sketchbooks the artist used during his journey. Another larger sketchbook, in a private collection, bears the same address of Preller as the present lot, is dated May 1860, and includes views of Sorrento, Naples, Capri and Paestum, while single drawings from this period are in the Kunsthalle, Bremen, the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (Bernhard, op. cit., pp. 1180-87). Preller and his wife returned to Germany in 1861, while their son remained in Italy. Preller returned to Italy twice afterwards, and depicted the Casa Baldi at Olevano again in his drawings of 1870 and 1872 in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, and the Museum der Bildenden Knste, Leipzig (Bernhard, op. cit., pp. 1192-3).