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oil on canvas 17 1/4 x 19 3/4 in. (43.9 x 50.2 cm.) This newly discoverd work by the artist was probably painted shortly before his appointment as personal doctor to the King of Saxony in 1827. Carus began painting as a hobby which he only pursued more seriously from the mid-1810s, and it was through his first exhibition in 1816 at the Kunstausstellung der Dresdner Akademie where he showed four works, that he met Caspar David Friedrich, who was to become a close friend. Friedrich, as well as Johann Christoph Klengel and Johann Christian Clausen Dahl, were to profoundly influence Carus' work. Our painting makes obvious references to Friedrich's work, both in regard to subject and style; however, Carus' personal style, which expresses itself in a meticulous interest in detail, derives from his scientific studies. It resulted in contemporary art critics labelling him a "highly skilled, genial man". The attribution to Carus is not only supported by such stylistic characteristics as the contrast of the leaves against the sky, on the picture's left-hand side, but also by a closely related drawing of the same composition and subject, (whereabouts unknown) sold at C. G. Boerner's in Leipzig on 19 February 1942, lot 33, entitled Ein Kreuzritter in einer gotischen Gruft am Grabmahl seiner Gemahlin (fig. 1.). This detailed drawing may have been a preparatory study, although he is known to have copied his own works in chalk in later years. The picture is sold with a letter of authenticity from Dr. Marianne Prause and will be included in her forthcoming revised catalogue raisonne. The 1942 C. G. Boerner catalogue (loc. cit) also accompanies this lot.