Near the Zugersee, Switzerland: Landscape with an Estate

Caspar Wolf was a Swiss landscape painter who traveled widely during his thirty-year career, working in the Swiss alpine town of Muri, southern Germany, Basel, Paris, Bern, Spa, and the Rhineland. In addition to paintings, he executed drawings, watercolors, and oil sketches that record the natural scenery observed on his extensive journeys. His landscape paintings are often characterized by fantastic rock formations and waterfalls amidst dramatic alpine settings. By contrast, this and two other watercolors in the Morgan collection (2007.99, 2007.100, and 2007.101) are refreshingly placid. Each depicts buildings near the Zugersee (Lake Zug) between Lucerne and Zurich, and not far from Wolf's hometown of Muri. The combination of white buildings, red roofs, green pastures, and blue lake result in images that are both faithful representations of the land and effective in their artistic simplicity.