Picture clock with Alster panorama

The Picture clock with Alster Panorama (German: Bilderuhr mit Alsterpanorama) also known as Coffeeparty on the Alster with view to Lombardbridge over the city is a picture clock or music box painting (Spieluhr-Gemälde) - an oil painting of a landscape scene with integrated mechanical clock, automata, and music box that is in the collection of the Hamburg Museum.[1] 74 cm x 89 cm in size, it was made between 1827 and 1830 by unknown group of artists and craftsmen[2] and was restored by the museum and watchmaker Helmut Tüxen in 2012.[3]

External video
description of the subjects visible in the painting
description of the mechanical aspects and their restoration
Bilderuhr mit Alsterpanorama (c.1830)

The foreground of the painting shows a group of people drinking coffee in a park on the banks of the Außenalster lake. They are accompanied by musicians and children. The background shows the Lombardsbrücke (Lombard Bridge) and behind that a panorama of the city of Hamburg. From left-to-right the recognisable buildings are:

These landmarks indicates that the scene is set on the Western bank of the Außenalster and oriented directly towards the South at approximately the location where the present day Straße Fontenay reaches the shoreline.[3] St Peters', St. Nicholas', and the workhouse were all destroyed in the Great Fire of Hamburg, 12–15 years after the painting was made. The wooden Lombard Bridge was replaced in the 1860s with the version known today and in 1953 the parallel Kennedy Bridge (originally called the "New Lombardsbrücke") was built. It now obscures the Lombard Bridge from the painting's viewpoint.

Mechanical elements
Photograph from 1860 showing the windmill, lake and original bridge, from approximately the same orientation as the painting

The several church towers feature working clocks. Other mechanically operated elements of the scene are:

  • the windmill turning
  • two children playing cup-and-ball
  • a harpist's and a violinist's arms moving
  • various boats moving across the lake
  • foot and horse-borne traffic crossing the bridge
  • a fisherman's rod
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References
  1. "Bilderuhr mit Alsterpanorama". www.hamburgmuseum.de (in German). Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  2. "Kaffeegesellschaft an der Alster mit Blick über Lombardsbrücke auf die Stadt (Uhrenbild - Bilderuhr)". www.europeana.eu. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  3. "Historische Kunstschätze im Hamburg Museum". www.abendblatt.de (in German). Hamburger Abendblatt. 2016-01-09. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
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