Lot Details
Lot 130
Fritz Siegfried George Melbye
Danish, 1826 - 1869
SUNSET LANDSCAPE OVER A LAGOON
Signed F.G.S. Melbye (ll)
Oil on board
Unframed, 15 x 18 inches (38 x 46 cm.)
Born in Elsinore in 1826, Fritz Melbye was the youngest brother in a family of established marine painters. He began his training with his brother Anton Melbye (1818- 1875) who had already established himself as a leading marine artist. He exhibited in Copenhagen in 1849 and in 1851 moved to the West Indies. While in Saint Thomas he met Camille Pissarro and in 1857 he convinced the young Pissarro, then entrenched in the family business, to accompany him on a trip to Venezuela. It was mistakenly assumed that Pissarro's first advisor was Anton Melbye. However, we now know that it was, in fact, Fritz Melbye who was Pissarro's first advisor.
Melbye set up as a marine painter in the Port of La Guaira and worked there for nine years. After Venezuela, he moved to New York and then to China where he died in Shangai in 1896. His works can be found in the Martime Museum of Kronborg Castle, Denmark (Charlotte Amalie off the island of St. Thomas) and in the collection Andrea Boulton, Caracas.
This delicate and atmospheric bay scene seems likely to have been one of Melbye's studies that he made while painting en plein air. With its topographical precision, careful shading and balanced composition, this work clearly demonstrates his ability to depict the unspoiled Venezuelan landscape that surrounded him.
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