Carl Spitzweg’s unique characters are world-famous, illustrating tales of fatal, all too human situations and portraying emotional states in bizarre and tragic moments of life. Well-read and widely traveled, Spitzweg drew on his extensive education and wealth of experience. Spending a lot of time exploring, he often visited the lake districts of Upper Bavaria. His paintings relate his encounters with the foothills of the Alps in Chiemgau and his sojourns in South Tyrol, Italy and Switzerland. Spitzweg scaled the mountains and enjoyed the view from the peak, for instance the “monumental” Watzmann in Berchtesgaden in 1836. He also traveled to Paris in the middle of the century, where he was introduced to the latest accomplishments of the Barbizon painters and learned a lot about outdoor, or “plein air” painting and the “paysage intime” style. The latter concentrated on portraying a fragment of a familiar landscape in the open air in natural lighting conditions which were rendered with natural colors. In the following years, Spitzweg increasingly opted for wide, panoramic horizontal views of the open countryside in addition to vertical views of alleys and houses. Beyond the genre he was renowned for, he also saw himself as a great observer of landscapes, which he peopled with small staffage figures – such as the two young girls here – as witnesses and admirers of the unique vistas. The artist went hiking in these unique mountain landscapes, such as the one overlooking the valley in this painting. Having captured the scenery in numerous sketches and small oil studies with narrative accompaniments, he then recreated the vast expanse of the landscapes in the studio. In this painting, Spitzweg recounts the grueling ascent through narrow gorges and across clearings, joining the two maidens in their enjoyment of the panoramic view of the valley from the vantage point of the high pasture below the Herzogstand peak. A sweeping plain opens out towards Landsberg am Lech across the misty Ammersee and Starnberger See lakes. The viewer can feel Spitzweg’s delight in the romantic panorama and his regard for nature’s subtle nuances. He skillfully modulates the refraction of light in its gradual transformation from the evocative, detailed foreground of the mountain pasture and the hazy, sprawling landscape all the way to the horizon, and finally, above it, the vast, cloudless sky. [MvL]