(Vienna 1793-1875) A view from Boboli garden to the Palazzo Pitti, signed and dated Thomas Ender 1819, watercolour on paper, 36 x 53 cm, framed, paled, an old archive- and collection number: 1009. VII. E.2. on the reverse, (Hu)

Provenance: Collection Annemarie Wetzler (1911-1937), Vienna;
her estate auction Albert Kende, Vienna 17th February 1938, Lot 4;
private property, Vienna.

The sheet was executed on Ender‘s journey with Emperor Francis I. and the Vienna court to Italy (March 9 to June 6, 1819). The inventory numbers on the reverse point to their context within a larger collection.

Francis I. was born and lived in Florence until the age of 16. His travel diary from 1819 embraces for the most part landscape perception. Apart from that the reader also discovers extent descriptions of individual buildings, art objects, particularly paintings and evaluations of artists and descriptions of the Emperor’s visits to various artists‘ studios. The Emperor took Ender and Johann Nepomuk Hoechle with him, who had to document and illustrate the journey. In the diary one can find specifications such as the following: "Den 15ten März: In der Früh im Boboli, und durch das ehemalige Quartier des Grafen Thurn gegangen, welches theils neu zugerichtet worden und theils noch im Bau ist. Den 19ten März: Dann die Groote beim Bacchus von auswendig, und in selbe hinein gesehen, neben welcher an der Mauer des Boboli ein Stück mit Staffeln zwischen Bäumen hinaufgeht, dann über den Fahrweg bis zur Meridiana nach Haus." (March 15: In the morning to Boboli, walked through the former residence of Count Thun, which has partly been newly built and partly is stil under construction. March 19: Then looked at and into the grotto of Bacchus, next to which the way goes upwards along the wall of Boboli and then the way home along the street to the Meridiana.)

Literature: Thomas Kuster, Das italienische Reisetagebuch Kaiser Franz I. von Austria aus dem Jahre 1819, Agenda Verlag Münster, 2008.

We are grateful to Dr. Maria Luise Sternath, Vienna, for the scientific advice.