Lovcensaddle Last Serpentine 1916

For picture description see below.

JQAW# L_1916_010
Oil on canvas 56 x 89 cm
Signature: John Quincy Ɑdams Lovcensattel letzte Serpentine 2. IV. 1916
HGM Vienna Inv.#1950_15_BI28396 Bez.#14752/2016

Mountain landscape in late winter. In the foreground a snow field. In the background, a mountain pass with snow remnants on the north side and a serpentine winding pass road. Colors dominated by gray of the mountains and white of the snow and complemented by strong color accents in brown and blue.

Probably the strongest landscape painting by Adams, pointing far beyond Austrian atmospheric impressionism into the future both in terms of technique and coloration. Lovcen is a mighty mountain range in Montenegro, in the hinterland of the city of Kotor with peaks over 1700 meters. It was the scene of fierce battles at the turn of the year 1915/1916 in the course of the conquest of Montenegro by the k.u.k. army. After 17.1.1916, the end of the fighting, the war action shifted to Albania, where Adams was also active as a war painter.

For comparative purposes (see cross-references), photographic and artistic impressions of the landscape around the Lovcen Saddle and the coast are also shown. The painting of the Bay of Kotor with the Lovcen in the background is by Karl Ludwig Prinz (1875-1944), a colleague of Adams in the war press quarters. The two artists were also long-time friends. Adams immortalized Prinz in his probably most famous painting "Chaconne" in 1910 together with his daughter Harriet.

Cross-references

Photo Naval station Kotor with Lovcen

Karl Ludwig Prinz 1916 Bay of Kotor and Lovcen

Exhibited

1986 Academy Schillerplatz, Viennese Society in Portrait, Catalog No. 36.

Literature

Schaffer/Eisenburger 1986, exhibition catalog #36 (no ill.).

APH, Werksverzeichnis JQA 1995, 1995, p. 154, cat.#122, no ill.

Provenance

Unknown.
401 Art auction Dorotheum Vienna 17.2. 1930 Lot 37. Unknown.
1950 Purchase by HGM from Viennese auction house,
HGM Vienna Inv.#1950_15_BI28396