This remarkable depiction of the surface of the full moon in oil is the work of Julius Grimm (1842-1906), scientific photographer and Hofphotograph (court photographer) to the Baden court, and was presented to Grand Duke Friedrich I von Baden in 1888. Grimm knew of the Grand Duke's fascination with astronomy and was granted an audience with Friedrich in November 1887, during which Grimm's photographs of the moon were discussed. Soon, Grimm embarked on an ambitious project to produce an oil painting of the moon, based on his photographs, to be presented to the Grand Duke. Grimm's representation features an arrow to the left of the moon, which indicates the direction of illumination adopted by Grimm. The shadowed surface would have been based on photographs of the different phases of the moon, when shadows do occur, as well the model-making technique that Grimm also adopted.

The present drawing represents a sophisticated perspectival study of an imaginary classical interior. The architect Gustav Friedrich Hetsch, whose signature is on the reverse of the picture, was for almost fifty years of the nineteenth century an eminent teacher and theorist at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, exercising considerable influence over the cultural life of Denmark. In 1822 Hetsch was appointed Professor of Perspective, becoming Professor of Architecture in 1829, it seems likely that the present picture was an aid for the studies of perspective undertaken at the academy under Hetsch’s tutelage.

Berlin. Circa 1830. The present botanical table is much in the manner of the work of the celebrated designer and architect Karl Friederich Schinkel (1781-1841). The formal restraint of the table, free from extraneous decoration and marked by the smooth elegance of its form and the quality of its detailing, is characteristic of Schinkel’s neo-classical furniture designs. The table is closely related to an engraving of an antique marble urn from Tivoli published in Vorbilder für Fabrikanten und Handwerker, for which Schinkel provided the plates from 1821. The Botanical table could be used to grow and display plants by means of removable trays which fit ingeniously into the curving sides of the table’s top or can be stored away in the base. Schinkel was profoundly engaged with relating his architecture to nature and the surrounding landscape, and the present table can be seen in the context of the garden rooms he incorporated into his buildings to achieve this conjunction.