(Leutschau 1793–1860 Florence)
A Shepherd with His Cattle in a Wooded Landscape, signed, inscribed and dated C. Marko S. p. Ap. 1860, oil on canvas, 32.5 x 36.5 cm, framed (frame damaged)

We are grateful to Dr. Gábor Bellák for confirming the authenticity on the basis of a photograph.

The Hungarian landscape painter Károly Markó the Elder completed his technical studies in Cluj and Pest before beginning his artistic career. He then worked as an engineer and surveyor for the Archbishop of Eger, Count Ladislaus Esterházy. There he already painted landscape watercolours and excelled in the final drawing of architectural sketches. At the age of 25 he finally began his artistic education, first in 1818-1821 at the drawing school in Pest and then between 1822 and 1824 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Here he had his first successes and was able to participate in an exhibition for the first time in 1826. In the same year he moved to Eisenstadt for a four-year stay, but settled back in Vienna in 1830. With the support of Baron Geymüller, for whom he painted
numerous Hungarian landscapes, Károly Markó was able to travel to Rome to study art. There he made connections with the Austrian painter Joseph Anton Koch (1768-1839) and the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). With their assistance he received commissions from the Austrian and Italian aristocracy. In 1838 he travelled to Pisa and in 1840 to Florence, where he was appointed honorary professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti. In the following years he had to interrupt his painting due to an eye disease and lived with his family in the Villa Appeggi in Florence from 1847 until his death.
His romantic landscapes are characterised by their dark foreground and light background. As a result, his paintings, like the lot at hand, possess a particularly attractive atmosphere. The often small-format landscape depictions are enriched with meticulously reproduced nature and staffage figures.