En gondol | Johann Julius Exner | 1859
En gondol | Johann Julius Exner | 1859
The Dane Johann Julius Exner is born in Copenhagen in 1825 and, later on, he decides to become an historical painter but, obliged by economic reasons, devotes himself to genre painting, it is, to portrait everyday life scenes in a realistic way.
From a stipend granted by the Danish Academy of Art, Exner travels for two years to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy, where he paints his most famous work, En gondol.
Is interesting the fact that, although the artist devoted exclusively to Danish scenes, he becomes famous for a painting created in another country. En gondol shows the interior of a Venetian gondola. A woman on the left stares at the gondolier who, bathed in light, leans to paddle and to take the ship to its destination.
What I like the most in the work is the angle the artist uses. The dark interior of the gondola in combination with the illuminated exterior make us feel like in a tunnel, a passage to another dimension. The contemplative upper class woman contrasts with the gondolier that tries very hard to direct the little ship.
