Carl Blechens stay in Amalfi in early summer 1829 marked the undisputed highlight of his journey through Italy and resulted in the so-called “Amalfi Sketchbook,” one of the most fascinating documents of 19th-century European landscape art.

In the steep gorges and rugged cliffs of the densely vegetated valleys along the Amalfi Coast, Blechen found a natural world that deeply resonated with his own emotionally turbulent artistic soul.

The selection shown here of some of the most spectacular sheets from this creative period reveals a freedom in drawing and painting that was far ahead of its time. With astonishing confidence, he rendered the landscapes on paper, mostly with fluid brushstrokes in sepia or watercolor. The central theme of these works is the light of the South in all its relentless intensity.

Here, Blechen mastered the art of negative space like no other: Often, the white paper remains untouched to depict the glaring, blinding sunlight, while a few bold brushstrokes nearby cast deep, dark, almost abstract shadows. In sketches such as the views of the valley or the dense groups of trees, he breaks down the forms of nature into light-dark contrasts that already foreshadow the visual language of modernism.

These drawings are not preparatory sketches in the traditional sense, but rather immediate, highly energetic records of a pure visual experience—drawn from light, with a modernity that remains electrifying to this day.