(Atzgersdorf 1832–1889 Vienna)
Spanish Landscape, signed A. Romako, oil on canvas, 61 x 83.5 cm, framed, (Rei)

Compare: Cornelia Reiter, Anton Romako, Pionier und Außenseiter der Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts, monograph and catalogue raisonné, Vienna 2010, CR no. 824.

Letter of authentication issued by Dr. Cornelia Reiter, dated July 2010, available.

From the letter of authentication: “The painting is directly comparable to the only previously known landscape from his Spanish trip, a view of the Alhambra in Granada...the similarity in colouring, painting technique and approach suggest that this painting, which has only recently reappeared, is also a landscape dating from this early visit to Spain. It could also depict a subject in the immediate vicinity of Granada. The painting expands the slim body of the artist’s works that can be dated with certainty to this period, and its painterly execution identifies it as an early work. The composition of the landscape remains scholastic. A wide path in the foreground draws the eye into the scene, to the left are country folk wearing picturesque but only hastily sketched costumes, resting on the rocks. Of note are the differentiations within the monochrome palette of brown tones, and the impasto style of painting, especially in the depiction of the ground at the forefront. Romako also paid special attention to the particularly atmospheric setting of the dense clusters of cloud, heightened with impasto highlights.