(Innsbruck 1838–1902 Neuilly-sur-Seine)
Near Naples, signed F. R. Unterberger, oil on canvas, 66.5 x 94 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Germany.

Catalogued in:
Sybille-Karin Moser, F. R. Unterberger und die salonfähige Landschaftsmalerei im 19. Jahrhundert, Innsbruck/Vienna 1986, p. 171, no. 37, Capri.

We are grateful to Dr. Sybille-Karin Moser-Ernst for kindly confirming the authenticity on the basis of the original.

A certificate issued by Dr. Sybille-Karin Moser-Ernst, 10. September 2023, is available upon request.

Franz Richard Unterberger was born in Innsbruck and was influenced by his father’s work in the art trade at an early age. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and received lessons from the landscape painter Julius Lange. Unterberger followed Lange when he was appointed to teach Archduchess Charlotte of Belgium, later Empress of Mexico, in Milan. He had to leave Milan after a few months due to the outbreak of the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859. He returned to Munich, before extending his studies at the Düsseldorf Academy. Oswald Achenbach, one of the most important German landscape painters of the 19th century, became his private teacher. Many of Unterberger’s works were created during a study trip that took him to Norway in 1860. After graduating from the academy in 1864, he moved to Brussels. Further trips took him to southern France and Italy. Motifs from Naples in particular were then presented at the Vienna Kunstverein and at the Vienna World’s Fair in 1873.
The present lot impressively demonstrates the artist’s ability to focus both on the detailed depiction of people in a fishing village and on the impressive rocky coast in the background.
Franz Richard Unterberger’s paintings were so popular at the time of their creation that they were often sold at exhibition. Among the buyers were members of the imperial family, such as Archduke Karl Ludwig. The painter died in 1902 in Neuilly, a suburb of Paris, where he often spent the summer months and maintained a studio.