List of landscapes by Albrecht Altdorfer

Portrait of Albrecht Altdorfer

Monogram of Albrecht Altdorfer

This is a list of surviving pure landscapes by Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480–1538), German painter and printmaker who produced the first independent landscapes since antiquity.

Paintings

Albrecht Altdorfer produced the very first pure landscapes in the history of European art.^[1]

Only five surviving landscape paintings are generally accepted to have been painted by Altdorfer.^[2] Two of them, one in Munich (30.5 × 22.2 cm) and one in London (41.2 × 35.5 cm), were painted in oils on parchment glued on wood.^[3][4][5] The other three, in Berlin, Erlangen, and Rotterdam, all just over 20 × 13 cm, were painted in watercolour and gouache on paper.^{[2][6][7][8][9]} All five are signed with Altdorfer's monogram AA (see below). The painting in Rotterdam is also dated 1522 by the artist.^[9][10]

Tokyo Fuji Art Museum owns an unsigned 53.1 × 45.1 cm oil-on-panel painting of a mountain range which it also attributes to Altdorfer.^[11]

Painting	Title	Date	Medium	Size	Location	Notes
	Danube Landscape with Wörth Castle near Regensburg[3] Danube Landscape near Regensberg[4]	shortly after 1520[3] c. 1522 – c. 1525[4]	oil[4] on parchment on beechwood[3]	30.5 × 22.2 cm[3]	Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany[3]	Inventory number: WAF30.[3] The earliest landscape painting of a known place, the surroundings of the Wörth an der Donau Castle^(de) near Regensburg.[3] Altdorfer also produced an engraving of the same locale. Signed with a monogram cut into the tree on the left:
	Landscape with a Footbridge[5]	c. 1518 – c. 1520[5]	oil on vellum on wood[5]	41.2 × 35.5 cm[5]	National Gallery, London[5]	Inventory number: NG6320.[5] Signed with a monogram in the upper-right corner:
	Landscape with a Spruce[6] Landscape with Woodcutter[7]	c. 1522[6][7]	pen, watercolour and gouache on paper[7]	20.1 × 13.6 cm[6]	Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, Germany[6]	Inventory number: KdZ 11651.[6] Signed with a monogram cut into the tree:
	Mountain landscape at sunset[8]	c. 1522[8]	pen, watercolour and gouache[8] on paper[2]	20.0 × 13.2 cm[8]	Library of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany[8]	Inventory number: B 812; shelfmark: H62/B 812.[8] Signed with a monogram in the upper part of the sky:
	Landscape with a Church[9]	1522[9]	painting on paper[2]	20.4 × 13.8 cm[9]	Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands[9]	Dated[9][10] and signed with a monogram,[9] cut into the tree on the left:
	Mountain Range[11]	c. 1530[11]	oil on panel[11]	53.1 × 45.1 cm[11]	Tokyo Fuji Art Museum[11]	Attributed to Altdorfer.[11]

Etchings

Altdorfer's landscape etchings, of which nine are known, are the first European prints with such subject.^[12]

Of particular interest is a group of ten delicately hand-coloured impressions of the etchings (8 in Albertina, 1 in Veste Coburg, and 1 in the British Museum).^[13] These are thought to have been painted in the artist's studio, perhaps even by Altdorfer himself (it was, in fact, his father's trade).^[14] An additional hand-coloured impression of somewhat inferior quality survives in the Rijksmuseum.^[15]

All the etchings are signed with Altdorfer's monogram (see below).

Etching	Hand-coloured	Title	Date	Size	Notes
		The Large Spruce[16] Large Fir[17] Landscape with a Large Pine[18]	c. 1517 – c. 1520[16][19] c. 1520 – c. 1523[18]	23.6 × 17.8 cm[16]	Impression in: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England (AD.5.22-122)[16] Hand-coloured impressions in: Veste Coburg, Coburg, Germany (1, 99, 89)[17][18] Albertina, Vienna, Austria (DG1926/1779)[19] Signed with a monogram in the upper-left corner:[16]
		The Small Spruce[20][21]	c. 1517 – c. 1520[21]	15.9 × 11.7 cm[21]	Impression in: British Museum, London, England (1867,0713.169)[20] Hand-coloured impression in: Albertina, Vienna, Austria (DG1926/1778)[21] Signed with a monogram on a tablet hanging from the tree:[20]
		Landscape with a Big Castle[22][23]	c. 1517 – c. 1519[23] c. 1506 – c. 1522[22]	10.8 × 14.9 cm[22]	Impression in: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (RP-P-OB-2978)[22] Hand-coloured impression in: Albertina, Vienna, Austria (DG1926/1780)[23] Signed with a monogram in the sky:[22]
		Landscape with a Double Spruce[24][25][26] Landscape with a Double Spruce in the Foreground[27]	c. 1517 – c. 1520[24] c. 1521 – c. 1522[25][27] c. 1506 – c. 1522[26]	11.0 × 16.2 cm[24]	Impressions in: British Museum, London, England (1895,0617.5)[25] Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, United States (1993.1097)[27] Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (RP-P-OB-2980)[26] Hand-coloured impression in: Albertina, Vienna, Austria (DG1926/1782)[24] Signed with a monogram in the sky:[25][26][27]
		Landscape with a City by the Lake			Signed with a monogram in the sky:
		Landscape with a Spruce and Two Willows			Signed with a monogram in the sky:
		Landscape with Two Spruces and a Castle			Signed with a monogram in a cloud:
		Landscape with a Shaded Cliff			Signed with a monogram in the upper-left corner:
		Landscape with a Water Mill			Signed with a monogram in the upper-left corner:

Engravings

Drawings

See also

• Albrecht Altdorfer
• Landscape painting

Notes

1. Wood 1993, p. 9
2. Wood 1993, p. 9: "Extremely few have survived: two were painted [...] on sheets of parchment glued to panel; three others were painted on paper"
3. Baumstark 2002, p. 40
4. "Danube Landscape near Regensberg". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
5. "Landscape with a Footbridge". National Gallery. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
6. "Landschaft mit Fichte". Berlin State Museums. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
7. Wood 1993, pp. 9–12
8. "Gebirgslandschaft bei Sonnenuntergang". Library of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
9. bildindex^(de), search for "altdorfer rotterdam"
10. Wood 1993, p. 9: "He dated one of the drawings 1511 and another 1524, and one of the paintings on paper 1522"
11. "Mountain Range". Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
12. Dackerman 2002, p. 139
13. Dackerman 2002, p. 139 + p. 141 fn. 2
14. Dackerman 2002, p. 141
15. Dackerman 2002, p. 141 fn. 2
16. "The large spruce". Fitzwilliam Museum. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
17. "Large Fir". Web Gallery of Art. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
18. Dackerman 2002, pp. 139–141
19. "Die große Fichte". Albertina. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
20. "The small spruce; with town background left Etching (Museum number 1867,0713.169)". British Museum. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
21. "Die kleine Fichte". Albertina. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
22. "Landschap met groot kasteel, Albrecht Altdorfer, c. 1506 - 1522". Rijksmuseum. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
23. "Landschaft mit großer Burg". Albertina. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
24. "Landschaft mit Doppelfichte". Albertina. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
25. "Landscape with a double spruce. c.1521-2 Etching". British Museum. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
26. "Landschap met dubbele spar, Albrecht Altdorfer, c. 1506 - 1522". Rijksmuseum. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
27. "Landscape with a Double Spruce in the Foreground". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 25 December 2015.

References

• Reinhold Baumstark [in German] (2002). Die Alte Pinakothek München, Englische Ausgabe. C.H. Beck. ISBN 9783406474521. google books preview
• Susan Dackerman (2002). Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color. Penn State Press. ISBN 9780271022352. google books preview
• Christopher S. Wood (1993). Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226906010.

External links

• Media related to Landscapes by Albrecht Altdorfer at Wikimedia Commons