(Miesenbach 1807–1862 Vienna)
The Cattle Drive in Altaussee with a View of the Dachstein Massif, c. 1855, signed F. Gauermann, oil on panel, cradled, 77.3 x 68 cm, framed

Provenance:
Kunsthandlung Georg Plach, Vienna 1855;
Collection of Baron Guido von Clauer (1848–1908), Vienna;
His estate sale, C. J. Wawra, Vienna 14 February 1910, lot 26;
Unknown Collection;
Private Collection, Vienna, until 1989;
By decent to the current owner in 1989 - Private Collection Germany.

Exhibited:
Österreichischer Kunstverein, November 1855, no. 2, Friedrich Gauermann,
Der Abtrieb von der Alpe, ownership: Georg Plach, Vienna

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Rupert Feuchtmüller, Friedrich Gauermann. 1807–1862, Vienna 1962, p. 214 (“Abtrieb von der Alpe”);
Rupert Feuchtmüller, Friedrich Gauermann, Vienna 1987, catalogue raisonné p. 304, no. 318, plate 234 (“Almabtrieb”).

Compare:
Dated pencil sketch, 1855, 15.8 x 13.6 cm, Kupferstichkabinett AK 7106; lithograph by Eduard Weixelgärtner.

The painting ‘Abtrieb von der Alpe’ by Friedrich Gauermann is listed as number 2 in the catalogue of the Österreichischer Kunstverein’s exhibition in November 1855. It was not for sale, but on loan from the art dealer Georg Plach, who had probably acquired the painting directly from the artist. The painter first recorded the scenery in a small, vividly captured pencil sketch (today held in the Kupferstichkabinett, Vienna), which is precisely dated 1855; the oil painting was therefore probably created over a few months in the same year.

Friedrich Gauermann, born in 1807 as the son of the painter Jakob Gauermann in Miesenbach in Lower Austria, belonged to the first generation of artists who devoted themselves entirely to landscape painting, breaking away from the academic tradition of historical painting. As early as the 1820s, Gauermann undertook extensive study trips to Styria, Tyrol and Vorarlberg, with the Salzkammergut becoming one of his most popular destinations. In 1851 he noted his ascent of the Loser in Altaussee in his diary, and in 1852 he enthusiastically described his journey through Styria via Bad Aussee to the Attersee in a letter. Later, in his studio, he turned the studies he had taken on location into impressive compositions that were greatly popular.

The painter chose the picturesque backdrop of the snow-covered Dachstein Mountains and the idyllic Lake Altaussee for this large-format depiction of an alpine pasture. A small herd of cows, goats and sheep, accompanied by a pretty young dairymaid, a shepherd boy and an elderly shepherd on horseback, is powerfully placed in the centre of the picture and warmly illuminated by bright sunlight, while in the background powerful cloud formations tower dramatically around the mountains. In this masterpiece of his later creative phase, Friedrich Gauermann refines the basic principle of his painting: the combination of utmost realism with the ideal of a rural world, drama and idyll as a constantly complementary contrast.

Compare:
Dated pencil sketch, 1855, 15.8 x 13.6 cm, Kupferstichkabinett AK 7106; lithograph by Eduard Weixelgärtner.