Jacob Hackert studied first with his father, Philipp Hackert, then from 1755 with Blaise Nicolas Le Sueur at the Berlin Akademie. There he encountered, and copied, the landscapes of Dutch artists and of Claude Lorrain. The latter influence shows in two works exhibited in 1761, views of the Lake of Venus in the Berlin Zoological Garden (versions of 1764 in Stockholm, National Museum). These much admired paintings retain a rather rigid late Baroque style. Hackert's main interest in these early works was to arrive at a special understanding of a place through alternate views, with reverse directions of observation. This systematic documentation bears witness to his interest in the study of nature.

In 1762 ...