Friedrich Thøming spent a time in Munich in 1826-27. While there, he made this lithograph after a painting by Albert Cuyp (1620-91), one of the most important Dutch landscape artists. One feature of 17th-century Dutch landscape paintings was the fact that the sky often takes up more than half the canvas. The horizon plays a significant role in this flat Dutch landscape even though the outlines of the city’s towers can be seen in the mist.
Like several artists from the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein, Thøming also went to Copenhagen to train in the Academy of Fine Art. Landscapes were his original interest. However, his work took a different turn when he started to copy Cuyp and he became a marine artist. He was uncommonly successful. By 1830 it was said that he had so much to do that he found it difficult to cope. He visited Italy for the first time in 1824, after which the coast at Naples and Capri became one of his favourite motifs. Thøming was one of Thorvaldsen’s many friends in Rome and enjoyed the artist’s special favour. In addition to two of Thøming’s lithographs, Thorvaldsen also acquired no fewer than six of his paintings (inv. nos. B293 to B298).
