(Vienna 1845–1916)
“Kleiner Prater”, titled on an old label on the reverse, signed Tina Blau, oil on canvas, 43.5 x 31.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Galerie Arnot, Vienna;
Private Collection Vienna.

Exhibited:
Kunstverein Frankfurt am Main, 1910/11;
Österreichische Galerie im Oberen Belvedere, Vienna, 1971.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Exhibition catalogue, Tina Blau 1845–1916. Eine Wiener Malerin, Österreichische Galerie im Oberen Belvedere, 29 June - 17 October 1971, p. 42, no. 76; Tina Blau online catalogue raisonné, Belvedere Research-Center Vienna, CR no. GE1024.

The Prater was a popular study location for landscape painters of the 19th century, as it was in the immediate vicinity of the big city and was left to nature in many areas, thus offering a small, quiet paradise. The painters were able to study in detail the flickering water in the Prater meadows, different groups of trees as well as isolated giant trees in open meadows. This diversity of motifs also attracted the attention of Tina Blau, who repeatedly captured views of the Vienna Prater in her paintings. The artist was able to extract a great variety of motifs from the landscape of the Prater, mainly the seasons of transition: spring and autumn.
For more than five decades, Tina Blau repeatedly came to her Prater studio where she found the wonderful mixture of amusement park and meadows, artistic inspiration and peace for her work. She captured the Prater landscapes with the people in them in her paintings with a skilful ability to depict variation. This is also the case in the present lot, which shows a section of the small Prater in late summer. At the end of the path lined with birch trees we recognise a woman in a blue dress and hat walking through nature. The trees seem to move in the wind and the leaves shimmer in autumnal colours. Here, Tina Blau skilfully conveys to us the tranquillity of nature, which had also captivated her.