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View of the Arco Valley

Albrecht Dürer · 1495

A watercolour landscape painted by Albrecht Dürer during his first journey across the Alps to Italy.

Dürer painted this watercolour during his first journey to Italy, documenting his travels across the Alps.

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Watercolor landscape of a castle on a steep rocky crag above a village, with olive trees, fields, winding paths, and a rocky cliff at the left edge. A monogram and handwritten inscription appear at the top.
Albrecht Dürer, View of the Arco Valley, 1495. Louvre, Paris.

About this source

What it is

This is a watercolour by Albrecht Dürer, dated 1495, held in the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Louvre. It shows a castle on a rocky crag above a village, with olive trees and fields in the surrounding landscape.

Why it matters

Dürer made this watercolour during his first trip across the Alps into Italy, a journey important for his artistic development and his exposure to Italian Renaissance ideas. The work documents a real place he passed through and reflects his growing skill in landscape depiction, made directly from observation while travelling.

Look closer

  • What does the inscription and monogram tell us about how Dürer marked his own travel sketches?
  • What features of the landscape suggest this was drawn from a real location rather than imagined?
  • Why might an artist record landscapes seen during travel?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Albrecht Dürer on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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