Rocky Landscape with Hunters 1786

Johann Christian Reinhart made this drawing, Rocky Landscape with Hunters, using pen and brown ink with brown wash on paper. Reinhart, a German painter working in Italy, here presents us with a landscape that appears both sublime and industrious. The sublime is evident in the imposing rock formations and the dramatic light, consistent with Romanticism’s reverence for nature. Yet, this is no untouched wilderness. We see hunters, figures of human industry, venturing into the landscape, accompanied by their dogs. The image subtly reconciles the wild and the cultivated, hinting at a cultural dialogue regarding humanity’s place within the natural order. The cultural and institutional context of 18th and 19th century Europe valued both the aesthetic appreciation of landscapes and their economic exploitation, as well as the rise of landscape painting within the academy as a legitimate genre. Studying Reinhart’s sketch in the context of such economic and institutional factors allows us a far richer understanding of the artist’s world.