(Palermo 1825–1856 Vienna)
An opulent floral still life with ornamental vases, signed, dated Rosa Amon (1)846 (hidden by the frame), oil on panel, 52.7 x 41.5 cm, framed, (W)

Provenance:
Private Collection, Vienna.

Unfortunately, very few sources tell us about Rosalia Amons life and education. Born in Sicily, daughter of the painter Carl Amon (1798-1843), she is known to have been a student of Georg Ferdinand Waldmüller (1793-1865) and to have exhibited at the Academy from 1841 onwards.
Her master himself thought of her as a very talented painter and a worthy successor in the field of flower still life painting and its painters; her works could, in fact, be admired at the 1844 exhibition held in honour of Pauline Koudelka-Schmerling (1806-1840) in Vienna.

Although Amon is known to have painted compositions of just one type of flower, here she offers us a traditional assorted bouquet. The richly-decorated gold and ivory vase and the silver objects in the background are typical of Viennese Biedermeier flower painting and remind us of some of Waldmüller’s compositions, in particular of the ‘Geburtstagstisch’, dated 1840, from the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, which depicts similar objects and an almost identical silk ribbon on the right.