Italienisches Skizzenbuch 1872

Emil Lugo used this landscape sketchbook with the faded imprint “Album” on his first trip to Italy from 1871 to 1873, when he was accompanied by his artist colleague Max Wilhelm Roman (1849‒1910). The drawings, partly with dates and locations, document Lugo’s stays in and around Rome from April to August 1872. Among other places, Lugo captured the view of the Lateran, visited Villa Borghese (April), then travelled to Tivoli (May to June), Subiaco (June), Civitella (July) and Olevano (August). His pencil-drawn landscape and city views, which he did with different degrees of precision, allow us to draw conclusions about the artist’s working methods. Lugo first captured what he saw in brief outlines before he expanded on what he was particularly interested in. Often, therefore, his drawings only show a reduced depiction of the foreground or background. Lugo made full use of the book’s landscape format for the composition, sometimes he even developed the drawing over a double page. For this, he usually chose a slightly elevated position. Individual framed compositions may well have been intended as sketches for later paintings. The artist left the last pages blank.For a full sketchbook description, please see “Research”.