769 - The Mühlengraben in Berlin, canal view with boats, wooden sheds and City Palace dome, veduta

The Mühlengraben in Berlin, canal view with boats, wooden sheds and City Palace dome, veduta Sepia wash drawing on paper, unsigned, verso numbered in pencil "62071", view across the Mühlengraben in Berlin between rows of houses, on the left a tall house with hipped roof and a deciduous tree, in front of it steps down to the water, in the centre wooden sheds on piles on the bank, in front of them two boats, in the background rows of houses with mansard roofs and the dome of the Berlin City Palace with lantern, on the right a row of houses with balcony, on it a person with a hat, on the bank planks, piles and laundry hung out, good condition commensurate with age, foxing, slightly browned, image 24x30 cm (HxW) The sheet belongs to the genre of the veduta, the descriptive depiction of a townscape or landscape aiming at faithful rendering; the term, which comes from Italian, is documented from the early 17th century. The rise of tourism in the 18th century created great demand for views of towns and landscapes, which circulated as drawings, watercolours and prints until they were replaced in the second half of the 19th century by photography, travel book illustration and the picture postcard. As a town view with canal, waterfront buildings and domed building, the sheet stands in this tradition of topographical drawing. The view shows the Mühlengraben in Berlin, which was built to drive the Werder mills at the Mühlendamm; a photograph by Friedrich Albert Schwartz from around 1870 in the Berlin State Archives shows a comparable view with the dome of the City Palace in the background.