(Untermieger 1824–1871 St. Ruprecht near Klagenfurt)
A Vast Panorama of the Koralpe, oil on canvas, each 92 x 190 cm, framed (4)

Provenance:
Acquired by the great-grandfather of the current owners probably directly from the artist -
Private Collection Austria since four generations.

We are grateful to the Steiermärkische Landesarchiv and Historische Landeskommision für die Steiermark for the scientific assistance.

The Carinthian landscape painter Markus Pernhart was a ‘pioneer’ in many respects, for whom painting and exploring the alpine mountains went hand in hand. His ambitious mountain treks not only tested his physical limits: they also allowed him to push beyond the usual formats of landscape painting by finding new, spectacular perspectives on the mountains of Carinthia and neighbouring regions, astonishing his contemporaries. From the late 1850s onwards, he developed ‘panoramic views’, with the aim of translating the overwhelming effect of the wide views from the summits into painting. These four-part, large-format series of pictures give the viewer themselves the feeling of standing by the cross at the summit of the mountain.
The first and most famous project of this kind, his monumental Großglockner panorama, which he created between 1857 and 1859 and exhibited in Klagenfurt in 1860, marked the trend-setting start of this approach. Here, too, Pernhart went beyond the limits of what had previously been customary by experimenting with the type of installation and designing a kind of ‘circus of boards with domed light’: the viewers stood in a turret in the middle and could enjoy the illusion of standing at the summit of the Großglockner themselves. These works were also shown in Vienna in the same year and then in Graz in 1862, albeit in a simplified format, boosting Pernhart’s renown as a panorama painter even beyond Carinthia.
Subsequently, he created about 20 to 25 further panoramas of various mountain peaks, among which the Koralpen panorama of 1867 is one of the most important. Its large format supports this allegation, but so do contemporary press reports, which today allow us to trace its creation more precisely. For example, on 26 September 1866, the Graz-based Tagespost reported that ‘the Carinthian painter Markus Pernhart, whose panoramas have become a special part of art history, has now created a panorama of the Koralpe, too’ and told its readers about a year later, on 18 August 1867, that ‘the Carinthian painter Markus Pernhart, previously known to the inhabitants of Graz for his landscape studies, has now also completed a panorama of the Koralpe. The picture, a worthy addition to his panorama of Hochschwab, unfolds the whole richness of the horizon dominated by that mountain on a tableau stretching five fathoms in length. Pernhart intends to exhibit the picture in Graz.’ In the same year, the journal Carinthia reported on this exhibition: ‘In addition to the annual exhibition by the Kunstverein, we had two private painting exhibitions, in which our ambitious and famous painter Pernhart once again exhibited several wonderfully executed mountain panoramas (of the Koralpe (...)) in the Wappensale of the Landhaus.’
Even today, the panorama offers an impressive level of geographical accuracy and documents the condition of an entire region before the building boom of the 20th century. From left to right, it is possible to make out the Petzen and the Steiner Alps, followed, in the background, by the Karawanken, which offers a backdrop to the Lavant Valley with the monastery of St. Paul, to the right of it, the Zirbitzkogel and the Ameringkogel. Further to the right, there is the Handalm, the Frauenkogel and finally the peak of the Koralpe itself, the Große Speikkogel. The Moschkogel and the Sprungkogel, on the far right, round off the picture.
Pernhart used professional geodetic instruments to create his works – tools that were otherwise only used by land surveyors. His ‘panoramic views’ were created with the help of a surveying compass progressing from 30 to 30 degrees or, according to another source, even with a magnetic theodolite. This detail reveals the spirit of research with which Pernhart approached his panorama projects and how important geographical accuracy was to him. In so doing, he went far beyond the usual conventions of landscape painting of his time and positioned himself at the intersection of exploration, painting and science.
Markus Pernhart died in 1871 at the age of 47, presumably as a result of internal injuries sustained in a mountain accident. An obituary says: ‘As a panorama painter, Pernhart (...) was truly special, and possibly unrivalled.’ The Koralpen Panorama is always mentioned in his obituaries as one of his major works. It has been in private Austrian ownership for four generations and is now reappearing on the art market for the first time since it was painted – a spectacular rediscovery. (KN)