Gathering Kindling on a Country Road

A fine 19th century Italian School oil painting on wood panel of an Italian landscape with figures dancing around a pool with a mountain backgro...

A wonderful Autumn landscape likely of the Hudson River Valley by the revered American artist William Louis Sonntag (1822-1900). Sonntag was born near Pittsburgh, PA and moved to Cincinnati, OH in the 1840’s to study art. He studied for a brief time with G. Frankenstein at the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Art and his idealized paintings of American wilderness and visionary paintings of imagined European ruins were commercially successful. He traveled twice to Europe in the 1850’s to improve his skills, eventually settling in New York City. He joined the National Academy of Design, where he exhibited his works for forty years. His mature works identify him with the Hudson River School of landscape painters. A romantic and naturalistic painter of his surroundings, Sonntag also created idealized paintings of Roman ruins, recalling his European trips of earlier years. Sonntag was an Associate (1860) and Academician (1861) at the National Academy of Design, and a member of the American Watercolor Society, Artists Fund Society, and the American Art Union...

A charming 19th-century pastoral scene depicting a mother and child gathering firewood, set against a backdrop of castle ruins and sweeping mountain vistas. Lush foliage and blue ski...

A delightful 19th-century oil study depicting figures on a mountain path. The setting sun on the horizon casts a warm glow over the scene, illuminating the figures and animals walkin...