(Vienna 1808–1853)
The Village School, signed, dated E. Ritter 1845, oil on panel, 65.5 x 79 cm, framed, cradled

Provenance:
Private Collection Vienna.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Gerbert Frodl, Wiener Malerei der Biedermeierzeit, Rosenheim 1987, ill. 220;
Gerbert Frodl, Klaus Albrecht Schröder (ed.), Wiener Biedermeierzeit. Malerei zwischen Wiener Kongreß und Revolution, Munich 1992, cat. no. 172.

The Biedermeier painter Eduard Ritter probably took particular pleasure in entertaining his viewers with his narrative genre paintings and making them smile. He graduated from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1829-1834 in the history painting class and quickly reached a high level of proficiency. From 1830 onwards, he regularly exhibited his works at the Academy of St. Anna. Unlike his contemporaries, however, he found his inspiration less in observations of nature and more in the pictorial inventions of 17th century Dutch painting. Those works were easily accessible to him due to the reorganisation of the Imperial Collections. His original motifs, including humorous, cliché typecastings, appear to be taken from life and are therefore instantly recognisable. They were intended to entertain and did not contain any socially motivated or moralising messages. This also explains why his pictures were very popular with the bourgeois public.
In this lot depicting the interior of a village school, a popular subject of Biedermeier painting, Eduard Ritter reveals a special ability in establishing an emotional connection between the viewer and the painted scene. The young, beautiful mother with her intimidated and frightened child faces the village teacher. He is, of course, portrayed as an eccentric, who would probably not be averse to a good drink as a bribe from the leisurely grandfather. The teacher’s top hat and violin are skilfully placed behind him on the wall and on the windowsill. Next to the central motif on the right in the foreground, the viewer’s gaze is led into the classroom. Naughty children are fighting and two of them already being punished in the middle ground, one standing in the corner and the other mopping the floor.
These multiple layers tell a story and allow new discoveries to be made in the picture, which gives this genre painting its special appeal.