Dresden From the Right Bank of the Elbe Below the Augustus Bridge
The Baroque skyline of Dresden across the Elbe — a Bellotto view so exact it helped rebuild the city after 1945.
Dresden Cathedral
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
Dresden From the Right Bank of the Elbe Below the Augustus Bridge — at a glance
- Artist
- Bernardo Bellotto (1721–1780)
- Year
- 1748
- Movement
- Venetian view painting (veduta), at the Saxon court
- Place
- The river Elbe at Dresden, Germany
- Viewpoint
- The Neustadt bank below the Augustus Bridge — the centre was destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt, using such views
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 133 × 237 cm
- Now at
- Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
Overview
This is one of the great series of Dresden views Bernardo Bellotto — Canaletto's nephew and pupil, and himself often called Canaletto — painted from 1747 as court painter to Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. From the Neustadt (right) bank, below the old Augustus Bridge, it takes in almost the whole Baroque city: the bridge crossing the Elbe, the dome of the Frauenkirche, the tower of the Hofkirche, the Brühl Terrace, boats on the river. It is oil on canvas, about 133 by 237 cm, and it hangs in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.
Where was Dresden From the Right Bank of the Elbe Below the Augustus Bridge painted?
Scholarship The viewpoint is the Neustadt bank of the Elbe, downstream of the bridge, looking across to the old town. On 13–15 February 1945 Allied bombing and the firestorm destroyed almost the entire historic centre; the Frauenkirche collapsed, and much of the skyline in the painting was reduced to ruins. Over the following decades, and especially after 1990, the city rebuilt — the Hofkirche, the Brühl Terrace, the bridge (rebuilt earlier) and, by 2005, the Frauenkirche. Bellotto's exact views, and Canaletto's, were used as references for the reconstruction. The skyline can again be broadly matched, as a careful rebuilding of what the painting records.
What is in the painting?
The Elbe fills the foreground, with rafts, ferries and moored boats and figures on the near bank. The many-arched Augustus Bridge crosses to the old town, where the domes, towers and long ranges of the Baroque city stand close along the far bank: the bell-shaped stone dome of the Frauenkirche, the Catholic Hofkirche, the Residenzschloss, the Brühl Terrace above the water. A wide sky of soft cloud closes the top.
Look closely
The Augustus Bridge
The long many-arched bridge crosses the Elbe from the near bank into the old town.
The Frauenkirche dome
The tall bell-shaped stone dome — it collapsed in 1945 and was rebuilt by 2005.
The Brühl Terrace
The raised riverside promenade above the far bank, the ‘balcony of Europe’.
The river traffic
Rafts, ferries and moored boats work the Elbe in the foreground.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A broad river foreground, the bridge leading across, and the whole city ranged along the far bank in crisp detail.
Scholarship Bellotto uses the river and the diagonal of the bridge to carry the eye into the panorama, then renders every building along the bank with hard, precise edges and a cool, silvery north-European light — clearer and greyer than his uncle's Venice, and almost topographically reliable.
History & provenance
The Dresden views were made for the Saxon court and, apart from wartime evacuation, have stayed in the city's collections; this one hangs in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.
Sources
- Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden — collection entry for Bernardo Bellotto, ‘Dresden from the Right Bank of the Elbe below the Augustus Bridge’ (1748)
- Landeshauptstadt Dresden — reconstruction of the historic centre and the Frauenkirche
Frequently asked
Where is this view taken from?
From the Neustadt (right) bank of the river Elbe at Dresden, just downstream of the old Augustus Bridge, looking across to the Baroque old town.
Is that skyline still there?
Yes, but as a rebuilding. The historic centre was almost completely destroyed in the February 1945 bombing and firestorm. It has been rebuilt over the following decades — the Frauenkirche was completed again in 2005 — partly using Bellotto's and Canaletto's exact views as references.
Who painted it — Canaletto or Bellotto?
Bernardo Bellotto, the nephew and pupil of the Venetian Canaletto. Bellotto also signed himself ‘Canaletto’, which still causes confusion.
How accurate are the buildings?
Very. Bellotto rendered each structure with hard, precise edges and almost topographical reliability, which is why the views could serve as models for the post-war reconstruction.
Where is the painting now?
In the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.
