6791 - Försterling, Otto

Försterling, Otto "Elves Pouring the Dew of Dawn." Watercolor and colored pencils, with a narrow border of fine gilded paper applied along three edges, mounted on sturdy vellum. 70.5 x 109.5 cm. Signed “Otto Foersterling” lower left and, on the reverse, titled, dated, and signed by the artist in his own hand: “fec. Otto Foersterling Dresden 1872/73, 429.” The fairy-tale motif is based on a concept from Celtic and Germanic mythology, according to which the sparkling morning dew is the work of nature spirits, elves, and fairies, who in the earliest hours of the morning scoop the dew from a spring and then sprinkle it on the trees, flowers, and grasses. The subject reached its peak particularly in the 19th century during the Romantic period and somewhat later in Victorian painting and Art Nouveau. Otto Försterling, who received his training at the Berlin Academy, worked as an independent artist first in Dresden from 1867 onward and then in Leipzig from 1890 onward. He devoted himself primarily to landscape painting, which he often enlivened with biblical or mythological elements, or, as in this case, expanded to include scenes from fairy tales. Boetticher (Paintings) lists, in addition to our watercolor, an oil version that was exhibited in 1876 at the 50th Academic Art Exhibition in Berlin. Exhibition: Kassel, Kunstverein, 1874. Lit.: Friedrich von Boetticher: 19th-Century Paintings, Drawings No. 3 (“Morning Dew, Watercolor”). - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.