(Verona 1856–1913 Prague)
Crossing the Ford, signed, dated R. v. Ottenfeld (18)90, oil on canvas, 80 x 110 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection Czeck Republic.

The Austrian painter Rudolf Otto von Ottenfeld became famous above all for his magnificently executed battle and oriental paintings. He completed his artistic studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, alongside Karl Leopold Müller among others. After living in Munich (1883-1893) and Vienna (1893-1900) he settled in Prague, where he was professor of painting at the Prague Academy. His detailed perception and reproduction of reality likely led to his 1895 commission from the Viennese publishing house Berté and Czeiger to illustrate the national special edition „The Austrian Army from 1700 to 1867“. His drawings and sketches for this work are in the collection of the Museum of Military History in Vienna.
In the present lot, Ottenfeld turns to a genre scene, in contrast to the heroic illustrations of the two-volume magnum opus of Austrian military history. The painting, dated 1890, falls within his creative period in Munich, where a circle of artists was established who devoted themselves primarily to depictions of horses and folk life. The detailed, painterly rendering of reality is clearly evident in this work. The cart, on which a mother holds her newborn gently and her son tightly embraces a young kid, is being pulled with great effort through the river by two oxen. The effort of this task is positively written on the faces of the mighty animals, as is that of the shepherd who drives them with a stick. The ox cart is followed by a flock of sheep, which hurry up the steep path to the river, and a wide cart, which can only be kept from sliding down with difficulty. The gruelling crossing has a stirring effect, and the meticulously rendered details allow the viewer to discover more and more as he views it. Almost no other artists succeed in transferring the eventful scene to the canvas so skilfully and in such a true-to-life way as Ottenfeld does in this lot. (JP)