Ludwig Strack. (1761 Haina near Kassel - 1836 Oldenburg) Dieksee and Behler See with Timmdorf in the morning light Strack chose a sublime vantage point on the northern shore of the Dieksee near Malente for his deep, Holstein lake landscape painted in 1810. The view looks across the Dieksee towards Behlersee and Plön, separated by a narrow spit of land with the small village of Timmdorf recognisable on the right. The rural staffage with the farming couple, the group of sheep and the cows emphasises the idyllic character of the veduta. The work is a variant of the painting that Strack painted as court painter for Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig of Oldenburg as early as 1798/99 (cf. Wvz. Frankcksen-Liesenfeld G 95). It belongs to an original series of 15 paintings of Holstein landscapes that Strack executed in 1809/10 for the important and wealthy Hamburg (Altona) merchant Georg Friedrich Baur (cf. Wvz. Frankcksen-Liesenfeld G 99-102). Strack is regarded as the artistic discoverer of the eastern Holstein landscape, as his works marked the beginning of the depiction of the Holstein landscape in painting and he gave priority to topographically accurate depiction over idealising exaggeration. The classicist landscape painter belonged to the Tischbein family of artists and was trained by his uncles. In 1788, he received a scholarship for Italy from the Kassel Academy of Art, which enabled him to arrive in Rome in the spring of 1789, where his cousin Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein was working on the famous painting "Goethe in the Campagna". Encouraged by him and Christoph Heinrich Kniep and influenced by Jakob Philipp Hackert, Strack henceforth devoted himself entirely to landscape painting. He returned to Germany in 1794. From 1798/99, he worked as a landscape and court painter in the service of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig of Oldenburg at the Eutin and Oldenburg courts. As an enlightened monarch, reformer and aesthete who was in favour of his citizens, he also promoted architecture, science and painting. In 1804 (or 1808), the duke also appointed Goethe-Tischbein as court painter and gallery director, and also purchased his collection of paintings for the ducal art collection. Oil on canvas, mounted on hard fibre. Signed. Verso on old (probably original label) inscribed "Das Dorf Timdorf mit dem Diek(...) und Plöner(...) auf dem Weg von Eutin nach Kiel" and by another hand "gemalt von Ludw. Strack 1810". 62 cm x 93 cm. Frame. We would like to thank Dr Silke Francksen-Liesenfeld, Oldenburg, for her kind assistance with the scientific examination. Oil on canvas, laid down on masonite. Signed. Inscribed and titled on an old (or original) label on the reverse.