Von Astudin, Schloss Stolzenfels Postcard

Oil painting (German: Ölgemälde) by Nikolai von Astudin. Nikolai von Astudin (Russian Николай Львович Астудин / Nikolai Lvovich Astudin), born July 9, 1847 in Moscow; † 8 August 1925 in Oberlahnstein, Germany, was a Russian landscape painter. In 1896 he married the female painter Joan Meineke in Braubach on the Rhine. In 1904/1905 Astudin lived in Bonn. He there painted the Bonn Rhine bridge in 1898 and also the Godesburg. In 1912 he moved to Upper Lahnstein, where he lived until his death. At this late stage,he painted this series of 12 oil paintings of villages and cities along the Rhine (German: Rhein) river. Stolzenfels Castle (German: Schloss Stolzenfels) is a castle near Koblenz on the Rhine, Germany. Finished in 1259, Stolzenfels was used to protect the toll station at the Rhine, where the ships, back then were the main transport for goods, had to stop and pay toll. Over the years it was extended several times, occupied by French and Swedish troops in the Thirty Year’s War and finally, in 1689, destroyed by the French during the Nine Years' War. For 150 years the ruins decayed, until in 1815 they were given as a present to Frederick William IV of Prussia by the city of Koblenz. Following the romantic traditions, the prince started to completely rebuild the castle after 1826 as a summer residence. Supported by famous neoclassic architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the castle was completely remodeled in the then fashionable neo-Gothic style, aiming to create a romantic place representing the idea of medieval knighthood - the architects even created a tournament site.