Christian Ludwig BOKELMANN (1844-1894)

Casino de Monte-Carlo, 1882 Oil on panel signed and dated "Monte-Carlo 1882" lower right. Size : 31 x 39 cm Sketch of the painting made in 1884. Provenance : Private collection, Monte-Carlo. Prussian realist and naturalist painter born in Saint-Jürgen near Bremen, he was associated with the Düsseldorf School. He started at the Academy of Fine Arts in this city where he studied with Ludwig Knaus and perfected his skills with Wilhelm Sohn. In 1873, he had his first major exhibition at the World Exhibition in Vienna and from the following year he regularly exhibited at the Prussian Academy of Art. In the 1880s he undertook a long study trip to the marshes of northern Friesland, inspired by the "Volkskunde" (ethnographic) approach to painting developed by Rudolf Jordan, and in 1883 he joined the artists' colony in Katwijk. Christian Bokelmann dies after falling down a staircase in his studio while trying to hang a laurel wreath given by his students on the occasion of his 50th birthday.