Caspar Wolf, the man who captured the raw power of the Alps

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Lower Grindelwald glacier with flash of lightning (around 1775). ProLitteris

View from the Bänisegg over the lower Grindelwald glacier (1778). ProLitteris

Exit of the Dala gorge looking south. ProLitteris

Dragon's Lair by Stans. ProLitteris

Gadmen Valley with Titlis, the Wenden glacier, Grassen and the Fünffingerstöcken (1778). ProLitteris

The large "stone table" on the Lauteraar glacier. ProLitteris

The second Staubbach waterfall in winter (around 1775). ProLitteris

A panorama of the Grindelwald Valley with the Wetterhorn, Mettenberg and Eiger. ProLitteris

Storm over Lake Thun. ProLitteris

Rhone glacier, seen from the valley floor at Gletsch. ProLitteris

Leukerbad with the Gemmi rock walls. ProLitteris

The Staubbach waterfall in summer. ProLitteris

The lower Grindelwald glacier, Lütschine and Mettenberg (1775). ProLitteris

Weir by Mühltal, east of Innertkirchen (1776). ProLitteris

Exit of the Dala gorge looking north. ProLitteris

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Swiss painter Caspar Wolf (1735-1783) is considered a pioneer in Alpine landscape painting. After moving to Bern, he was asked by influential local publisher Abraham Wagner to illustrate an encyclopaedic travel guide of the Swiss Alps. 

Wolf’s paintings, which do not idealise life in the wild mountains but instead reflect reality, can now be seen in Basel’s Museum of Fine Arts. 

Wolf, who was born in canton Aargau and who died in the German city of Heidelberg, had a naturalistic style and developed independent formulations for mountain ranges and glaciers, waterfalls and caves, bridges, rushing streams, lakes and high plateaus. His images enable viewers to perceive the mountains in a dramatic, sensory way. 

Albrecht von Haller, a Swiss anatomist who in 1729 wrote the epic poem “The Alps”, was a fan of Wolf’s new way of looking at the unwelcoming, hostile landscape. He noted that “in the beautiful Wolfian view, one sees the water of a stream dissolving into the mist”. 

The exhibition, “Caspar Wolf and the aesthetic conquest of nature”, shows how his paintings had a lasting influence on the visual communication of the Alps at the end of the 18^th century. The 126 works of Wolf and his contemporaries are on display until February 1.