Signed and dated lower right: HBürkel (conjoined) 1843 Extensive hiking trips and travels throughout Europe as well as longer educational sojourns to Italy served to broaden the artistic horizons of Bürkel, a former legal clerk from Pirmasens, who decided to take the great leap of becoming a painter in 1822. His atmospheric, realistic images depicting farms, blacksmiths and inns, but also travellers, beggars, bandits and monks in their native landscapes soon found both fans and buyers. Bürkel skilfully marketed his paintings via artists' associations throughout Germany, and later in the United States. He achieved both wealth and fame during his lifetime, which may have been abetted by his marriage into an upper middle class family from Munich. We would like to thank Albrecht Krückl for confirming the authenticity of this work on the basis of high-resolution photographs. The painting will be included in the supplement to the catalogue raisonné. Dimensions 32.5 x 44 cm Artist or Maker Heinrich Bürkel Medium Oil on canvas (relined) Literature Cf. Bühler, Hans-Peter und Krückl, Albrecht: Heinrich Bürkel, Munich 1989, p. 289, no. 543 & 544 (each illustrated) Provenance German private collection. - Proceeds from the sale of this lot will be donated to Caritas. Notes VAT: Margin scheme