
Christian Ezdorf
German artist Christian Ezdorf created this monumental panorama of Prague in 1821. The elevated vantage point for this sweeping view over the city and the
German artist Christian Ezdorf created this monumental panorama of Prague in 1821. The elevated vantage point for this sweeping view over the city and the
Johann Christian Ezdorf was born in 1801 in Pößneck, Thuringia, Germany, and studied landscape painting at the Munich Academy. In 1821 he visited Prague as part of an artistic exchange program, where he produced the present monumental panorama of the city in striking detail. Travelling on to Northern Europe, Ezdorf visited the city of Hamburg, Norway, Sweden and Iceland. Especially in Sweden the artist gathered great acclaim for his work, which captured the rugged Nordic landscape and its rough climate with great drama. He settled in Stockholm and was invited to regularly exhibit at the Swedish Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 1831 was elected honorary member of the institution. After living in Sweden for most of his life, Ezdorf returned to Germany in 1846, spending the last five years of his career in Munich, occasionally travelling to Britain. Christian Ezdorf died in 1851.
Inspired by seventeenth century Dutch artists Jacob van Ruisdael and Allaert van Everdingen, the artist’s oeuvre mainly consists of smaller landscape paintings. Aside from the present large-scale panorama of Prague he produced a sweeping bird’s-eye view of Stockholm in 1823, which last appeared on the art market in 1989 and is in private hands today. Ezdorf’s paintings and drawings can be found in the collections of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.