Pergola with Oranges
Thomas Fearnley·c. 1834
Historical Context
Thomas Fearnley, Norway's most gifted Romantic landscape painter, produced this luminous study of an Italian pergola with oranges during one of his extended stays in southern Europe. Fearnley studied in Dresden, Munich, and Rome, absorbing the plein-air practices of Scandinavian and German painters working in Italy. His oil sketches from nature are among the freshest and most spontaneous landscape studies of the early 19th century.
Technical Analysis
The oil-on-paper study demonstrates Fearnley's remarkable ability to capture Mediterranean light and color with rapid, confident brushwork. The warm golden light filtering through the pergola is rendered with vibrant impasto, while the oranges provide vivid accents of color.
Provenance
Hoffjegermester Thomas Fearnley, Oslo, son of the painter; by descent through his family [according to conversations with Knut Buchman, the agent for the owner]; purchased by the Old Masters Society, 2002; given to the Art Institute, 2002.
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