Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Oil on canvas. 1909
Signature: E. Dücker. 1909

“A rocky coast” is brightly colored and freshly painted, reflecting Eugen Dücker’s (1841-1916) approach to impressionist plein air painting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This kind of imagery was also reflected in the work of his students at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts, where he had been able to attend thanks to a scholarship he had received for his brilliant performance in his final thesis. Dücker, who later became a professor of landscape painting at the same school, significantly revamped the academy’s teaching system. Among other things, another Estonian-born artist was his student, Oskar Hoffmann.

The ties with Estonia were maintained mainly thanks to his artist sister Marie Dücker who lived in Pärnu and whom he visited, painting the coast there (for example, “On Pärnu River”, 1879, Art Museum of Estonia) and views of Saaremaa. Although he often painted in northern Germany and Rügen at the time, this particular view was likely painted in Estonia and is a good example of the aesthetic ideals taught by Dücker himself.

The artist’s bright, realistic images of nature are in astonishingly lifelike colors. Dücker has also delved into the detailed depiction of each blade of grass, with his virtuoso mixing of colors, managing to capture the gently swaying waves of the sea water and take the viewer directly to breathe in the fresh sea breeze.

Text: Mai Levin, Katre Palm