Romantical painting with a Neapolitan harvest girl in a sunset landscape was executed by well renowed German historical, genre and portrait artist and writer Rudolf (Wilhelm August Rudolf) Lehmann (1819 Ottensen by Hamburg - 1905 Bournamede /England). The artist was the son of German painter Leo Lehmann. He and his elder brother Henri Lehmann studied in Paris at the Ecole des bBeaux-arts, in Rome, and in Munich by the painters Peterr von Cornelius and Wilhelm von Kaulbach. From 1839 to 1846 he undertook study travel to Rome. Lehmann`s major painting "The Blessing of the Pontine Marshes by Sixtus V" was shown in Paris in 1846 and bought by the French goverment. Lehmanns third Rom travel took part between 1863 and 1864. His genre painting from day life in Rome and folk scenes broken him popularity .Nearby Lehmann was asked portrait painter (portraits of writer Robert Browning, Ferdinand Gregorovius and Alphonse de Lamartine, painters Peter von Cornelius and Adolph Menzel, politicans William Ewart Gladstone and Frederick Lygon 6th Earl Beauchamp, scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Leopold von Ranke, composers Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Giacomo Meyerbeer ). Since 1851 Lehmann exhibited his works at the yearly exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts .In 1866 Lehmann settled in London, became a British citizen, and painted his best known portraits. He married Arnelia Chambers, daughter of the Scot author and naturalist Robert Chambers. Amelia`s sister Nina married Lehmann`s younger brother Frederick, and the extended social circle of the two couples included Dickens, Gwerge Eliot, Robert Browning, Lord Leighton, and other prominent figures. In 1896 a number of his engraved portraits were collected and published as Men and Women of the Century. One of Lehmann`s daughters was Liza Lehmann, who became a notable English Soprano and composer. Lehmann was the uncle of the British journalist and politican Rudolf Chambers Lehmann. 1895 in London Lehmann published his Memoires of artist´s reminiscences. 1904 took part Lehmann to the last time on the exhibition of the Royal Academy and in the next year died he in the age of 86 years in Bournemede bei Bushey.

Literature: Thieme/Becker, "Lexicon of artists", Leipzig, 1999.

Inscription: signed lower left.

Technique: oil on wood, original period gold-plated frame.

Measurements: unframed w 8 1/4" x h 6 1/4 " (21 x 16 cm), framed w 11 1/4 " x h 9 1/2" (28,5 x 24 cm)

Condition: in very good condition.