CIRCLE OF JACOB PHILIPP HACKERT (1737 – 1807) Narcissus looking into the water

Watercolor on paper 62 x 86 cm painted circa 1780 Provenance: Private collection, Italy Narcissus looking into the water with Roman ruins and mountain landscape in the background was executed circa 1780. Jacob Philipp Hackert was a Prussian neoclassical landscape painter recognised for «an amazing ability to capture nature», wrote Goethe, his friend and biographer. After travelling through northern Germany, Hackert visited Stockholm, Hamburg, and Paris, before travelling to Italy in 1768. He lived in Rome and Naples, where he produced many works for Sir William Hamilton. He became renowned throughout Europe due to his works for Catherine the Great, paintings about the Battle of Chesma, and Pope Pius VI. Hackert took up residence in Naples in 1786 as court painter to King Ferdinand IV. In Naples, he also met and became friends with Goethe. During this period, he also acted as a secret informant of Russia. His contact was the Russian Count Andrey Razumovsky (1752-1836), the Russian ambassador to Austria during the Napoleonic Wars.