(Atzgersdorf 1832–1889 Vienna)
Ox-Drivers in the Campagna near the “Sedia del Diavolo”, signed, dated A. Romako, Roma 1863, oil on canvas, 45.5 x 73.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Anonymous collector’s stamp R. E. W. (Lugt 4269);
Collection of Heinrich Fuchs (1923-2000);
Private Collection, Vienna.

Catalogued and Illustrated in:
Cornelia Reiter, Anton Romako. Pionier und Außenseiter der Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts, Monographie und Werkverzeichnis, Vienna 2010, p. 125, no. 99 (with erroneously mixed provenance information).

The work of the artist Anton Romako, who was controversial during his lifetime, repeatedly features both the motif of the ox-drivers in the Campagna and the Sedia del Diavolo, a ruin from the time of Hadrian, tomb of Aelius Callistion. The present version, however, stands out for its strong dramatic effect and luminosity, embedded in the charming panorama of the Roman Campagna. Romako was raised in difficult family circumstances in Vienna and began studying at the Vienna Academy in 1847, subsequently in Munich with Wilhelm Kaulbach and the history painter Carl Rahl. After disagreements with his teacher, he moved to Italy, first to Venice and from 1857 to Rome. Romako’s work was initially in great demand, but he later alienated the public by using unreal colours and merging contrasting parts of the picture. Financially ruined and emotionally broken, the painter died in Vienna in 1889.