WUTTKE, CARL1849 Trebnitz - 1927 Munich


Title: Coastal Area on the Island of Tscha-lien-tao in China.
Oil study.
Date: 1898.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Mounted on canvas.
Measurement: 20 x 27,5cm.
Notation: Signed at the bottom: "C. Wuttke / Tscha-lien-tao 1898".
Frame: Framed.
Verso:
On the card is an old number: "581".

Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

In 1898, Prince Heinrich of Prussia, representing his brother Kaiser Wilhelm II, was the first European prince to visit China. At this time, according to the article in the Thieme-Becker encyclopaedia, the Emperor commissioned two paintings from the world traveller Carl Wuttke: firstly, a view of the Bay of Hantschau - VAN HAM was able to offer such a view in representative dimensions a few years ago. Secondly, Wilhelm II also commissioned Wuttke to depict the island of Tscha-lien-tao near Tsingtau for the Berlin Palace, for which the oil study shown here was probably painted by the artist on location in China as preparatory work.

After beginning his studies in Berlin and Munich under A. Quaglio, Wuttke first spent time in Italy (1874-1876) before becoming a master student of Eugen Dücker in Düsseldorf from 1877-1880. After completing his studies, he worked in Munich, from where he travelled extensively to the United States in 1893 and around the world in 1897-99, which also took him to China (1879-99).
The Emperor's commissions were one of the landscape painter's greatest successes.