A masterly sepia wash brush painting of a southern European landscape accomplished by Frederic Chopin on an off-white 9.5 x 7 sheet, signed below in ink, “F. Chopin.” The wonderful artwork features view of gondola gliding across a pond, a couple walking in the countryside, and the towering ruins of a castle on a hill in the background. It very well may be a Mallorcan view produced around 1838, as George Sand's watercolor ‘Seaward View From the House in Valldemossa’ shows obvious similarities. The reverse bears an incomplete pencil portrait, unquestionably also the work of Chopin. Handsomely mounted, matted, and framed to an overall size of 17.25 x 14.75. In fine condition, with two repaired tears to the bottom edge.
Chopin's inclinations toward pictorial art were already evident during his days as the Warsaw Lyceum: his chalk portrait of the Lyceum's director Bogumil Linde has survived (Bory, p. 49), as has a landscape signed in full (now in the Ciechomska collection in Warsaw, pictured in Bory, p. 52). The provenance of this uncommonly evocative painting can be traced to the master himself: Chopin presented it to his student Karol Mikuli (1821-97), who always held it in the highest esteem and bequeathed it to his own student Raoul von Koczalski (1885-1948). From Koczalski's estate it passed to a student from his master class. From him it was acquired by the renowned German antiquarian music and music books dealer, Hans Schneider of Tutzing, who offered the painting at the 1976 Zurich Art Fair "Antic '76" and in his catalogue 200. Last in a private collection. Also illustrated in: E. Burger, Frédéric Chopin. Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern und Dokumenten (Munich 1990), p. 183, fig. 386. An absolutely stunning piece that combines art with music.
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