August Podesta (1813-1858)

Graveyard at Briesnitz Church, Dresden

Signed and Dated: “Podesta 1833”

Oil on Canvas, 62 x 50.5cm

Dated 1833, the following work seems to have been painted in the company of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), who had accumulated a small circle of followers in his later years, possibly to make up for mounting frustrations and declining means. Friedrich spent his remaining years painting graveyards, producing a similar view of the same church before his first stroke in 1835.

August Podesta was born in Malchow, Pomerania in 1813 and entered the Dresden Academy in 1829, before re-enrolling in 1833. A certificate of study from Ferdinand Hartmann (1774-1842), dated 25th March 1834, suggests he had finished his studies by then. His move to Munich (c1835) appears to have coincided with Friedrich’s declining health and a paralysis that had left him increasingly unable to paint in his final years.