Dec 19, 2017

Sotheby's

Dec 19, 2017

Sotheby's

Mar 25, 2015

Neumeister

May 22, 2014

Sotheby's

May 22, 2014

Sotheby's

May 22, 2014

Sotheby's

Painted in 1830 the present work is the second version in oil of this subject. Waldmüller first explored the theme in 1828 in both oil and watercolour (Feuchtmüller nos. 248 & 249). In his catalogue raisonné, Feuchtmüller mistook the first oil version for the present work.Diligence Rewarded is one of Waldmüller’s earliest paintings of figures in a landscape, for which he later became so renowned.  Having begun his career as a portraitist and copying the Dutch Masters to hone his skills, by the late 1827 he began to focus on the life and traditions of Austria's rural communities, blending naturalism and idealism into his own inimitable style. Compared to his contemporaries, the Romantics Caspar David Friedrich and Joseph Anton Koch, whose landscapes are expressions of the sublime, dwarfing all human staffage, Waldmüller’s are altogether more gemütlich, putting the figures and narrative at the forefront. Here, a proud mother in festive local costume runs the blind grandfather’s hand over the medal while the boy, his writing slate, book, and quill under his arm, already has his eye on the pastry being held out to him by his grandmother. His father and mother look proudly on. The setting appears to be a valley near Pernitz, to the south west of Vienna, the peak in the background the Schneeberg. Despite the minute attention to verisimilitude – each expression is lovingly captured, the topography recognisable – Waldmüller remained faithful to the tenets of academic teaching, the staged, pyramidal structure of the figures harking back to Leonardo, Raphael, and the Renaissance masters.  

May 22, 2014

Sotheby's

Painted in 1837, the present work is a tour de force by Austria's leading painter of the Biedermeier. Primarily known for his genre paintings, Waldmüller himself considered the artist’s calling to be the representation of nature. As he wrote in 1846: ‘Nature must be the only source and sum of our studies, it is in she alone that truth and beauty are to be found’.In this exquisite depiction of Wildbad Gastein, a fashionable spa town in the Salzburg region of Austria where the international upper classes would go to take the waters, the fidelity to nature is self-evident. Schubert was inspired to write the Gastein Symphony by the beauty of these surroundings, and the scene was depicted by other contemporary artists and print-makers (fig. 1). Here Waldmüller builds up a symphony of colour in his acute attention to the play of light and shadow in the rich greens of the mountainside. The subtle, interwoven textures of the trees and stone are juxtaposed with the harsh force of the tumbling water and the simple lines of the buildings to produce the depth and clarity that are connected with Waldmüller’s pure Naturalism. Accordingly, the present work bears witness to the artist’s claim that ‘Truth and Nature’ was his sole aim and guide, and rests in his œuvre as a perfect example of his dedication to open air painting.

Nov 20, 2013

Sotheby's

Jan 26, 2012

Sotheby's

Nov 22, 2011

Sotheby's