Ruins of the Brunnenburg near Meran, South Tyrol after E.T. Compton, circa 1878

A wide Alpine view from a wooded hillside above the Adige valley. On a rocky spur at left stand the broken walls and square keep of the Brunnenburg, half wrapped in trees, with a chalet roof just below. The ground falls away to the broad, cultivated valley floor, threaded by a winding river, and beyond rise long mountain ranges with clouds drifting over the peaks. In the foreground a herdsman drives cattle along a stony track, and dark firs crown the slope at right, with a sheer rock face rising behind them.

The lettered title reads "Ruins of the Brunnenburg near Meran, South Tyrol." The castle stands above the town of Merano (Meran), in what is now the Italian province of South Tyrol. The view was drawn by E.T. Compton (Edward Theodore Compton, 1849 to 1921), the English-born landscape painter who settled in Bavaria and became known for his mountain subjects, and it was engraved on steel by T. Heawood. The plate carries the imprint of Cassell, Petter and Galpin of London and belongs to their Picturesque Europe, issued in parts and volumes in the later 1870s.

This is a steel engraving, finely cut, with the dense hatching of the trees and rocks giving way to delicate, open work in the sky and the far mountains.

A strong choice for anyone with ties to the Tyrol or the Alps, and it would sit well in a hallway or study in a narrow black or dark wood frame.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.