(Vienna 1842–1926)
A View of Vienna, dated (1)885, inscribed on the reverse A. Hlavacek 1885 – Die Kaiserstadt an der Donau, oil on canvas, 100 x 131.5 cm, framed

Compare:
Wiener Landschaften. 173. Sonderausstellung des Historischen Museums der Stadt Wien, 27 March 1993 - 13 February 1994, exhibition catalogue, Vienna 1993, pp. 20–21, 52.

The painting shown here is a smaller version of Anton Hlavácek’s enormous painting ‘The Imperial City on the Danube- Vienna from the Nussberg’, which the artist produced from 1877 onwards, as a result of a commission from the Ministry of Culture and Education. Measuring 430 x 730 cm, it took several years to create this painting. Various public institutions had plans to purchase it, but they failed time and again due to a lack of funds until it was finally purchased from the artist for the City of Vienna under Mayor Karl Lueger in 1902. Today, it can be found in the Wien Museum under inventory number 24.222.
Although considerably smaller in size, the lot shown here is in no way inferior to the more sizeable work in terms of its expression and colourfulness. The panorama of the city spreads out from the Nussberg, with the tower of St. Stephen soaring skyward in the centre of the picture, as if it were the city’s navel. In the midground, the wide bed of the Danube can be seen on the left, with the Nussdorf brewery next to it, its smoking chimneys suggesting that the malt is in the process of being roasted. The foreground is thrown into shadow by a cloud, and guides us to a meadow next to a vineyard on the right-hand side. The small hole in the ground, positioned in a very visible spot in the foreground, is shown without being glossed over and must be the result of what Hlavacek saw when he sketched the image en plein air. As a result, this charming spot on the Nussberg aligns very closely indeed with the reality we see in the present.