One of the earliest sketchbooks in the Archives of
American Art is by Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910) from his trip on
the Rhine in 1849. Whittredge, a Cincinnati landscape painter, was
traveling by boat to the Düsseldorf Academy, where he would begin his
formal art training. Each day he surveyed his surroundings for
potential subjects. Cologne and Bonn did not interest him, but
Drachenfels appealed to his romantic sensibilities. In his
autobiography he wrote:
My first landing was Drachenfels. Guide-book in hand and constantly
watching for the ‘castle crag of Drachenfels,’…I got off the boat as
soon as possible and walked back and ascended the peak where I expected
to meet the ‘peasant girls with deep blue eyes’ which Byron had
intimated were there to be found.
Although the pleasant girls left something to be desired, the landscape appealed to him:
…as the sun was rising over the ‘Seven Hills’ I looked out my window
with the Rhine at my back, and saw a picture. It was but a moment, but
I made some memoranda, and in the following winter painted a large
picture of this subject for my Cincinnati friend, Mr. William
Groesbeck.*
Whittredge’s sketchbook includes his "memoranda" of the Seven Hills and
Drachenfels, as well as views of St. Boar, Rheinfels, Nonnenwerth, and
other points of interest along the river. They are quick, lively
sketches that outline the features of the landscapes with panoramas
that span two pages. Whittredge’s sketchbook is typical for a
nineteenth-century American artist who studied abroad. It served as a
repository of ideas, a place to develop his powers of observation, and
a graphic memento of his grand tour.
* John I. H. Baur, ed., The Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge 1820-1910 (New York: Arno Press, 1969), p. 20.
[Sketchbook],
1849 / Worthington Whittredge, artist. 1 v. : various media ; 15 x 24
cm. Worthington Whittredge papers, [undated] and 1836-1932. Archives of
American Art.
Sketches and sketchbooks in the Archives of American Art
The Smithsonian
Visit.
[Thanks Joy]
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