Max Clarenbach (1880 Neuss - 1952 Wittlaer/Düsseldorf) Moonlight over snow-covered fields Clarenbach's Impressionist work is exceptional due to its colourfulness; otherwise he primarily loved the light, silver-grey melancholy of autumn and winter landscapes on the Lower Rhine and captured them in nuanced paintings. From 1894 to 1903, Clarenbach studied at the Düsseldorf Academy under Eugen Dücker; in 1903, he was awarded a major medal in Vienna for his winter landscape "Stiller Tag", and numerous winter paintings followed. He was so successful with his paintings that he had his own home and studio built on the banks of the Rhine in Wittlaer in 1908 according to plans by Joseph Maria Olbrich. In 1909, Clarenbach co-founded the progressive "Sonderbund", which propagated modernism with its exhibitions. After Eugen Dücker's death, Clarenbach became his successor at the Düsseldorf Academy, where he taught as a professor from 1917 to 1945. Oil on canvas; signed l. and r.; 60.5 cm x 70.5 cm. Frame. Provenance: Estate of the artist; Rhenish private collection. Oil on canvas. Signed.