ID: 700008201 Page link: http://vocab.getty.edu/page/cona/700008201	Record Type: Movable Work

River Landscape (drawing (visual work); Johann Georg von Dillis (German, 1759 - 1841) (German Artist...; about 1820 - 1830; J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, Los Angeles county, Calif...; 2009.75)

Note: An accomplished artist and art professor of late eighteenth- and ninteenth-century Germany, Georg von Dillis also occupies a position of historic significance a leading figure in southern Germany patrimony and as building supervisor and first director of Munich's Alte Pinakothek. From an early age, Dillis exhibited an abiding passion for drawing the natural landscape. While still in the early stages of his artistic career, Dillis was commissioned by an attendant at the court of the Bavarian Elector to draw the scenery of the mountains outside of Munich. Dillis continued to develop his fascination with the landscape genre by experimenting with various media-pencil, pen, crayon, chalks, sepia, and watercolor-and by using colored and prepared papers as his supports. His landscape drawings are characterized by the spontaneous movement of his pen and brush and by a prescient impulse toward abstraction and the fractured representation of light effects. The drawing exhibits these qualities, exposing the boundary between the forms represented and the means of representation. Wonderfully fresh in conveying the subtle shifts of tone and hue originally suggested by the artist, the proposed drawing describes the flow of water through the curving banks of a river vale. The inclining silhouette of a willow tree in the left register accentuates the river's recession into space at the same time that its highest branches help to define the height of the sheet. With fast-moving and irregular gestures, Dillis has defined the textures of the water's surface, the rough rock faces above the river's edge, and the dramatic transitions from sun-washed to shadow-cast stretches of field and underbrush. When Dillis resigned from his post as professor of landscape painting at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, it was on the principle that 'nature is the best teacher.' Drawings such as this sheet demonstrate what Dillis gained from his direct study of nature and his innovative means of representation.

Titles:

River Landscape (preferred,C,U,RP,English-P,,)

Landscape with River and Trees and Ruins in the Background (C,U,DE,English,U,U)

Catalog Level: item

Work Types:

drawing (visual work) [300033973] (preferred)

..... (Objects Facet, Visual and Verbal Communication (hierarchy name), Visual Works (hierarchy name), visual works (works), <visual works by material or technique>)

Classifications:

drawings (preferred)

Creation Date: about 1820 - 1830

Creator Display:

Johann Georg von Dillis (German, 1759 - 1841) (German Artist) [preferred,JPGM]

draftsman Dillis, Georg von (German painter, printmaker, and draftsman, 1759-1841) [500009659]

Locations:

Current: J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, Los Angeles county, California, United States) [500115988] J. Paul Getty Trust, Corporate Bodies (Corp. Body)

Repository Numbers: 2009.75

Other: Creation: Deutschland [7000084] Europe (continent), World (facet) (Geographic)

Display Materials: Watercolor and gouache over graphite

	watercolor (paint) [300015045]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by function>, coating (material), <coating by form>, paint (coating), <paint by composition or origin>, water-base paint)

	gouache (paint) [300070114]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by function>, coating (material), <coating by form>, paint (coating), <paint by composition or origin>, water-base paint)

	graphite (mineral) [300011098]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by composition>, inorganic material, mineral)

Dimensions: 29.3 x 44.2 cm (11 9/16 x 17 3/8 in.)

Cultures:

German (preferred)

General Subject:

landscapes (preferred)

natural objects

Specific Subjects:

	landscape (representation) [300015636]
	.....(Objects Facet, Visual and Verbal Communication (hierarchy name), Visual Works (hierarchy name), visual works (works), <visual works by subject type>) (AAT)

	river [300008707]
	.....(Objects Facet, Built Environment (hierarchy name), Settlements and Landscapes (hierarchy name), landscapes (environments), natural landscapes, bodies of water (natural), bodies of freshwater, <bodies of freshwater by biome>, riverine bodies of water) (AAT)

List/Hierarchical Position:

..... Movable Works

.......... Movable Works by class: drawings, paintings, prints, other two-dimensional media

Sources and Contributors:
River Landscape	........ [JPGM,VP]
	........ J. Paul Getty Museum database for collections (2000-)
Landscape with River and Trees and Ruins in the Background	........ [JPGM,VP]
	........ J. Paul Getty Museum database for collections (2000-)

Subject: ....... [JPGM,VP]

Note:
English	..... [JPGM]
	..... J. Paul Getty Museum database for collections (2000-)