(Vienna 1812–1905)
Hohensalzburg seen from Kapuzinerberg, signed and dated R. Alt (1)830, titled ”Salzburg vom Garten des Kapuziner”, inscribed in handwriting and titled Nr. 126 Rud. Alt, Salzburg und Hohen Salzburg, aus dem Kapuziner Garten, Studie 132 on the reverse, the stamp Gsell on the reverse, the stamp Plach on the recto (Friedrich Jacob Gsell, Lugt L.1108, Georg Plach, Lugt L1188), pencil, watercolour on paper, 28 x 37,7 cm, mounted, framed, (Hu)

Provenance:
Collection Friedrich Jakob Gsell (1812-1871), Vienna (Lugt 1108); his estate auction sale, G. Plach, Vienna, 14th March 1872 (ff.), lot 870;
Collection Georg Plach (1818-1885), Vienna (Lugt 1188); private collection Austria.

We are grateful to Dr. Maria Luise Sternath for the scientific research.

Motifs from Salzburg and the Salzkammergut are among the earliest independant works by Rudolf Alt which he executed in the years 1829 and 1830. For the most part they were made in pencil and watercolour and were presumably depicted directly from nature. “Auf den ersten Blick scheint es, als wären viele von ihnen unvollendet geblieben. Es ist aber gerade die Art und Weise der “Unvollendung” - das teilweise Stehenlassen der Bleistiftvorzeichnung, der Rhythmus von aquarellierten Partien und weißer paperfläche - , die den besonderen Reiz und die Ausstrahlung dieser Arbeiten ausmachen. Es sind Naturaufnahmen von höchster Intensität bei größter Zartheit der eingesetzten Mittel. Äußerste Konzentration auf das A motif from sowie die perfekte Beherrschung der Technik ermöglichen den hohen Grad der ”Naturwahrheit”, der diesen Studien innewohnt.” (At first glance it seems as if many of them remained unfinished. However, it is the manner of the „incompletion“, their partly having been limited only to the preparatory pencil drawing and to the rhythm of parts painted in watercolour alternating with the white of the blank paper, which make up the charm and appeal of these works. They are images of nature exceuted with highest intensity and greatest softness of the applied means of depiction. Utmost concentration on the motif and perfect mastery of the technique allow a high degree of „natural“ truth, which is preserved in these studies). (Comp. Maria Luise Sternath, Rudolf von Alt, Exh. cat. Albertina, Vienna 2005, pp. 77 and 78.)