Kollner Watercolor painting of Hamburg

Price on Request
View of Hamburg, Pennsylvania at the base of the Blue Mountains
AUGUSTUS KOLLNER (1813-1900)
Berks County, Pennsylvania, circa 1840
Watercolor on paper, 6 ¾ x 11 inches, with a period painted frame
Inscribed lower right: “From nature by A. Kollner.”
Inscribed in pencil on verso: “Hamburg / Berks County”

Note:
Born in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1813, Augustus Kollner studied painting and lithography in Frankfurt before immigrating to the United States, where in settled in Philadelphia by 1839. During the 1840s he executed a series of watercolors depicting American scenes which were published in 1848-1851 by Goupil, Vibert & Co, as Views of American Cities.

Prior to going into business as a printer and lithographer, Kollner had worked for a number of Philadelphia lithographers, including J. T. Bowen, Frederick Kuhl, Thomas Sinclair, and others. In 1865 and 1868 Kollner exhibited some of his drawings at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1947 there was an exhibition of his work at The Free Library of Philadelphia.

Provenance:
Richard and Rosemarie Machmer collection, Hamburg, PA.

Exhibited:
The Pennsylvania Germans, A Celebration of Their Arts 1683-1850, an exhibition organized by The Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, 1982-1983; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, 1983; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 1983; The Art Institute of Chicago, 1983-1984.

Published:
Beatrice B. Garvan and Charles F. Hummel, The Pennsylvania Germans, A Celebration of Their Arts 1683-1850 (Philadelphia, 1982), plate 13, and exhibition checklist no. 188, p. 184.