Current Preview Archive 2010 Archive 2009 Archive 2008 Archive 2007 Archive 2006 Archive 2005 Archive 2004 The Etrucians Cloud Images Die Brücke and the Modern Art Archive 2003 Archive 2002				Carl Blechen: Cloudy Sky above a Long Building with Two Domes, ca. 1829, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett Overview		In 1828, Blechen traveled by way of Dresden to Italy. His stay there lasted just under one year and was an artistic turning point for him like for so many others. Similar to Johann Christian Dahl, whom he visited in Dresden prior to his journey, the sketching activities of the French artists “en plein air” were instrumental. Furthermore, Blechen also must have seen paintings and watercolors by William Turner in Rome, who also spent time there in 1828/29 and whose dissolution of objects into light, air and color were able to give him significant inspiration. In his Italian oil sketches, Blechen shows a fondness for unusual subjects and details. In his small, generally long landscape formats, he abstains from detailed descriptions in favor of spontaneous creations recording a general impression of the landscape in one unique moment. He preferred bare, dry Campagna for his sketches and completely ignored historical pilgrimage sites visited by artists of earlier generations. The landscapes become moving areas of color; the summarily executed brush strokes turn colors, instead of the objects themselves, into the real champions of expression.