Five Meet Up at the National Gallery

You've bought a new painting, but it's actually one of a set of five. Nice idea to borrow the other four for a few months so you can admire them all together, as they were originally meant to be seen. And let the public in for free.

That's what the National Gallery in London has done to mark the acquisition of The Fortress of Königstein from the North by Bernardo Bellotto. If you're in central London, take 20 minutes out of your day to transport yourself to 18th-century Saxony for Bellotto: The Königstein Views Reunited. 

If you follow the River Elbe upstream from Dresden towards the Czech border, you'll eventually come to the fortress on the right-hand side. It's in an area known as Saxon Switzerland, not Swiss in the sense of towering mountain peaks, but distinguished rather by rocky outcrops such as the one the fortification sits on. 

Bellotto (1722-80), the nephew of Canaletto, was court painter to August III, the Elector of Saxony, and painted around 30 views of Dresden and its surroundings for the ruler; many are still in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in the city. The views of Königstein, though, never made it into the royal collection because of the Seven Years' War and found their way to Britain instead, later being split up. They're together at the National for the first time since the 18th century. 

The tour starts with the National's own painting, a view from the north, alongside the river, where the railway line up the Elbe now runs. You can appreciate the defensive qualities of the fortress, looming above you on the rocks with its sharply angled ramparts and silhouetted against the sky. The architectural precision of Bellotto's painting can be seen in his rendering of the crumbling plasterwork in some of the buildings; you feel there's not a detail that has escaped his attention.

Come round to the north-west now, rather further away for a long-distance view that again really emphasises the bulk of the fortress on its outcrop. This painting, borrowed from the National Gallery in Washington, takes in another massive rock, the Lilienstein on the northern side of the Elbe. From the rather theatrical resting peasants and their animals in the foreground, your eye is drawn up to the right and the road along which a heavily laden cart wends its way up to the fortress, passing a shepherd with his flock.  

One more view from outside the fortress before we head in. This time it's from the south-west, emphasising the length of the apparently impenetrable walls stretching along the escarpment, which form a strong diagonal across the canvas. The military function of the structure seems in sharp contrast to the rural idyll below the fortifications. 

Two paintings from Manchester Art Gallery round off the tour. First, the courtyard with the Brunnenhaus, housing the well that gave the fortress its water supply. Diagonal lines of the avenue of trees on the left and the chimneys of the barracks block on the right draw the eye in, but you can't miss the dilapidated wall of the fortress garden right in the foreground, its masonry showing through the crumbling plaster, as do the bricks on the chimney of the building on the left.

And in this final picture, it's the vignettes of everyday life in the fortress that catch the attention, particularly the washing and drying going on in the right foreground in front of the Magdalenenburg. The linen drying on the lines casts sharp shadows across the sunlit grass as the washerwomen chat. 

Practicalities

Bellotto: The Königstein Views Reunited is on at the National Gallery until October 31. Opening hours are 1000-1800 every day, with lates on Fridays until 2100. This show in Room 1 is free, but you currently have to book a timed entrance ticket to the gallery, which you can do here. The National Gallery is on the north side of Trafalgar Square, just a couple of minutes from Charing Cross or Leicester Square stations on the rail and Underground networks.

Images

Bernardo Bellotto, The Fortress of Königstein from the North, 1756-58. © The National Gallery, London
Bernardo Bellotto, The Fortress of Königstein from the North-West, 1756-58, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Courtesy National Gallery of Art
Bernardo Bellotto, The Fortress of Königstein from the South-West, 1756-58, The Earl of Derby, Knowsley Hall. Reproduced courtesy of the Rt Hon The Earl of Derby. Photo: © Christie’s Images Limited
Bernardo Bellotto, The Fortress of Königstein: Courtyard with the Brunnenhaus, 1756-58, Manchester Art Gallery. © Manchester Art Gallery, UK/Bridgeman Images
Bernardo Bellotto, The Fortress of Königstein: Courtyard with the Magdalenenburg, 1756-58, Manchester Art Gallery. © Manchester Art Gallery, UK/Bridgeman Images