Station: [16] Hallway on First Floor – Cleves Romanticism

F:

A favourite subject among the painters of the Cleves Romantic School was the view of the city of Cleves and its surroundings in the picturesque hilltop setting.

M:

“True, our fatherland cannot offer rocks, waterfalls, high mountains and romantic valleys. Nature, proud and noble, is not to be found in our home country, and yet it offers scenic attractions that are rarely found in many other countries.”

F:

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek, writing about the Netherlands in his memoirs. In fact, he discovered both along the Rhine – from the flat river landscapes and seascapes of the Dutch Rhine delta to the enchanted castles on the Middle Rhine further upriver.

No doubt the landscape of rolling hills around Cleves, which is unusual for this region, played its part in persuading Koekkoek to settle here in 1834. The hills of Cleves originated in the last Ice Age, when the glaciers deposited them in the form of moraines. And Koekkoek ended up building his house and his studio next to one of those hills.

If you’d like to see a model of this complex, please make your way up to the top floor and the final stop on our tour.

_________________________________________

Zitat Vaterland: Herinneringen en Mededelingen van eenen landschapsschilder, Amsterdam, 1841, S. 242.

„Zeker, ons vaderland levert geene rotsen, watervallen, hooge bergen en romantische dalen op. Eene trotsche, verhevene natuur is in ons land niet te vinden; en nogtans biedt hetzelve ons natuurschoonheden aan, die in vele andere landen maar zelden voorkomen.“