Goethe in the Roman Campagna

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein · 1787

The poet Goethe reclining among broken antiquities in the Roman Campagna, the tomb of Caecilia Metella and the aqueducts behind him.

The real place in the painting

Tomb of Caecilia Metella

The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.

Goethe in the Roman Campagna — at a glance

Artist: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751–1829)
Year: 1787
Movement: Neoclassicism
Place: The Roman Campagna, along the Via Appia, outside Rome
Viewpoint: A curated backdrop of real Campagna monuments — the tomb of Caecilia Metella and aqueducts survive (Appia Antica park)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: c. 164 × 206 cm
Now at: Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Overview

Goethe in the Roman Campagna is the most famous portrait of the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, painted by his friend and travelling companion Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein in 1787. Goethe, in a broad-brimmed hat and a pale grey travelling cloak, half-reclines on a block of fallen stone in the open country outside Rome, gazing thoughtfully to the side; around and behind him are a toppled Egyptian-style relief, the ruined round tomb of Caecilia Metella, an aqueduct, and the hills of the Alban range. It is oil on canvas, about 164 by 206 cm, and it hangs in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt.

Where was Goethe in the Roman Campagna painted?

Scholarship The setting is the Campagna Romana, the countryside south-east of Rome along the ancient Via Appia, dotted with tombs, aqueducts and ruins — the classic ground of the eighteenth-century Grand Tour. The tomb of Caecilia Metella (a massive round Roman mausoleum on the Appian Way) and stretches of aqueduct still stand and are in a protected regional park (Parco dell'Appia Antica), so the individual monuments can be visited; Tischbein assembled and rearranged them behind the figure rather than painting one exact view.

Real placeTomb of Caecilia Metella

ViewpointThe real place in the painting

Coordinates41.85201, 12.52070

Original now atStädel Museum, on public display

The real place in the painting Current museum

What is in the painting?

Goethe fills the centre, propped on one elbow on broad fallen blocks, legs stretched out, hat shading his face, looking off to the left. Beside him lies a carved slab showing a scene from a Greek tragedy (Iphigenia — Goethe was then revising his play). In the middle distance, the drum of Caecilia Metella's tomb; further off, the arches of an aqueduct and the blue Alban Hills under a soft sky.

Look closely

Goethe reclining

Propped on one elbow on fallen blocks, hat shading his face, gazing off to the left.

The Iphigenia relief

A carved slab beside him shows a scene from Greek tragedy — a reference to the play he was revising.

The tomb of Caecilia Metella

The round drum of the great Roman mausoleum on the Via Appia stands in the middle distance.

The aqueduct and hills

Arches of a ruined aqueduct and the blue Alban Hills close the ideal panorama.

Analysis

Composition and technique

A large reclining figure across the foreground, the antiquities of the Campagna set out as a curated backdrop.

Scholarship Tischbein poses Goethe like an antique river-god or philosopher among ruins, and arranges the monuments — relief, tomb, aqueduct, hills — as an ideal panorama of the classical past that the poet has come to absorb. The figure was worked up separately; some accounts note that the legs are awkwardly drawn.

History & provenance

The painting was bought by the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, in 1887 and is one of its best-known works.

Sources

Städel Museum, Frankfurt — collection entry for J. H. W. Tischbein, ‘Goethe in the Roman Campagna’ (1787)
Parco Regionale dell'Appia Antica — the tomb of Caecilia Metella and the aqueducts