783 - Benjamin Orth, two landscape studies, Lake Starnberg landscape, water mill on a mountain stream

Benjamin Orth, two landscape studies, Lake Starnberg landscape, water mill on a mountain stream (1803 Karlsruhe – 1875 Karlsruhe), two paintings, oil on canvas laid on cardboard, 1) lake landscape on Lake Starnberg, signed lower left "B. Orth", signed "B. Orth." and inscribed "Landschaftsstudie" on the reverse, partly rubbed, on the left a large deciduous tree with seated figure staffage at the trunk, behind it a church tower between trees and cattle in the meadow, view across the lake to the far shore and a mountain range under a yellowish sky, in need of restoration, craquelure, retouching, losses, image 16.5x23.5 cm (HxW), 2) mountain landscape, signed and inscribed on the reverse, partly rubbed, on the left a water mill on the slope, in front of it a wooden bridge with figure staffage over the mountain stream with waterfall, on the right a wooden hut with fence, behind it a high mountainside, in need of restoration, craquelure, retouching, losses, image 16.5x23.5 cm (HxW) Benjamin Heinrich Orth was born in Karlsruhe in 1803, came from a family of artists, studied at the Academy in Munich and worked in Mainz from 1833 until his death in 1875. He is known above all as a Biedermeier portrait and figure painter; works by him are held by the museums in Karlsruhe and Mainz. The lake landscape is probably the study for his painting "Romantische Voralpenlandschaft mit Blick über den Starnberger See", dated 1868, which corresponds to it in composition and staffage. The landscape painters of the 19th century painted such oil studies in small formats in front of the motif in order to capture light and nature directly, and used them in the studio as models for the finished paintings. They were usually made on paper or canvas that was subsequently mounted on cardboard, often remained unsigned and were rarely exhibited during the artists' lifetimes.