A windmill in a storm

Achenbach was to Germany, as Constable was to Norwich. He was to restore the study of nature in landscape, turning away from traditional classical ideals. Travelling with his father to St. Petersburg as a youngster, he settled there and studied at the Russian academy under Shadow and Schirmer. Curiously, like Chardin and Delacroix, he was regarded as a bad pupil, similarly misunderstood. It was then to Dusseldorf where his fortunes changed. There he would develop ideas gained from a trip to Holland and the Baltic coast in 1832. He then settled in Frankfurt acheiving notoriety with his Baltic landscapes. In 1873 he switched his attentions to Italy, settling in Capri. Although he did not have many pupils of his own, he can certainly be regarded as a pioneer of German painting. He is represented in nearly all the major museums in Germany, and sporadically elsewhere.