(Atzgersdorf 1832–1889 Vienna)
A Young Italian Shepherd with a Dog, signed A. Romako a Roma,oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection Giuseppe Bossi (1810-1891), Vienna;
his sale, Galerie H. O. Miethke, Vienna, 15 December 1885, Lot 142;
Private Collection, South Tirol, until 1926;
Collection Alois (1877-1956) and Josefine Glingar (1877-1963), Vienna;
Thence by descent – Private Collection, Vienna.

Exhibited:
Künstlerhaus Vienna, Achtzig Jahre Künstlerhaus, 1948;
Österreichische Galerie Belvedere Vienna, Anton Romako, memorial exhibition, 25 March - 14 May 1950, no. 49;
Leopold Museum Vienna, Anton Romako. Beginn der Moderne, 6 April - 18 June 2018, ill. p. 83.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Fritz Novotny, Der Maler Anton Romako, Vienna 1954, p. 88, no. 195, p. 22, ill. 9;
Cornelia Reiter, Anton Romako, Pionier und Außenseiter der Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts, monograph and catalogue raisonné, Vienna 2010, p. 186, cat. raisonné no. 326.

Anton Romako painted the picture of the young shepherd towards the end of his years in Rome in the early 1870s. It is undoubtedly one of the major works of this phase and, together with the well-known "Italienisches Fischerkind” in the Belvedere, also marks its end. The painter's economic and private situation had already begun to deteriorate dramatically, coupled with growing political instability in Italy. Romako's response to this was not painterly conformism but a new pictorial language in which the psychologizing element became of great importance.

This is a portrait of a young shepherd bursting with life, in a pose and size that was traditionally only used for portraits of the nobility. At his side is a dog, another typical attribute of the aristocrat, a symbol of loyalty and power. In 1873, Romako was invited by Henry Francis Lord Makins to his country estate in London, where he was able to study the English portraits of Thomas Gainsborough. His art had a lasting influence on Romako, but in terms of content he broke new ground in a way that was strange at the time. His art ennobled the simple, unknown shepherd boy and gave him individuality and grandeur. Instead of a velvet or silk coat, a sheepskin hanging casually over his shoulder confidently distinguishes his status. Countless brushstrokes, applied with wild gestures, capture the soft and rough materiality of the coat - in contrast to the almost velvety smoothness of the brown skin. The young man's attentive gaze moves to the side, while the dog's audible panting and the hand holding him back convey tension, concentration and authority. In the ambivalence of individual characterization and representation of a class, Romako succeeds here in creating a fantastic portrait full of psychologizing details and painterly refinement.