ROCK TOMBS OUTSIDE JERUSALEM, 1884

oil/canvas, cm 95 x 160

Signed and dated: C.C. Schirm, 1884

German inventor, painter, landscape artist Carl (Cowen) Shirm signs his works with the acronyms CCShirm and CCS. The painting here is part of the orientalist series, when in 1880/81 the painter decided to make a trip with his friend and colleague Eugen Bracht through Syria, Palestine and Egypt. The trip lasted about 5 months, outside of the usual tourist routes. They visited the Negev desert and Mount Sinai. Of the orientalist production we remember the work "Wadi Feiran" today in the inventory of the "Alt National Galerie" in Berlin. Shirm’s second great passion was photography, of which he enjoyed a reputation as a great inventor and innovator. In this painting his two passions, the photographic and the pictorial, merge to give a set of lights, colors and unique details.