Late 19th century painting by Heinrich Rasch (1840-1913) German painter of Danish origin. The painting belongs to the series of fisherman and beach imagery which are among Heinrich Rasch's popular motifs. Featuring women on the beach of Viareggio, their baskets heavy with the morning catch of mussels, oysters, and fish. Sail boats drift by on waves under a blue sky with the mountains in the far distance. Signed lower right Heinrich Rasch, Viareggio - Munich. Oil on canvas. In a gilt wood frame. In overall good antique condition with general wear commensurate with age and use, some spots of gilt loss to the frame. Frame measures 32" x 21" x 2". Canvas measures 27 1/4" x 16 1/4".
Heinrich Rasch was born in 1840 in Norburg on the island of Als (Denmark). He was a German landscape, genre and marine painter from the environment of the Munich School. The Danish-born German painter Heinrich Rasch turned to painting at the age of 26 and became a student of the Danish marine painter Anton Melbye in Hamburg in 1866. From 1866 to 1869, he continued his painting studies at the Karlsruhe Art Academy under Hans Gude, and from 1870 under Arthur von Ramberg in Munich. Rasch mainly lived and worked in Munich and established his studio there in 1873. He is considered one of the founders of the Ekensund artists' colony, which was founded in 1875. In 1891, the Munich Art Association organized an exhibition of his works comprising 220 works, a larger selection of which was later taken over by the Kiel Art Gallery. From the beginning of the 1880s onwards, Rasch repeatedly travelled to Venice, northern Italy and Tuscany. He visited the beach resort of Viareggio, and painted on the banks of the Arno near Florence and on the Lido of Venice. He undertook numerous study trips to Switzerland, as well as to the North and Baltic Seas, to Lake Constance, Brittany, the Adriatic, and England, and to the Netherlands painting the beaches of Katwijk and Scheveningen. Works of the artist were collected in the following museums: Städtische Galerie Nürnberg, Kunsthalle Kiel and Universitäts-Galerie Würzburg. Heinrich Rasch passed away in Germany in 1913 in Koburg.