(Vienna 1812–1905) View over the fields of Wadovice, a village between Crakow and Bielsko at the foothills of the Little Beskids at Skawa river, signed R. Alt, titled and dated Wadowice 10. August 1839, watercolor on paper, verso stamp Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz, Inv. Nr. II/1844, ex. 10.2.2021, 12 x 18 cm, mounted, framed, (Hu)

Provenance:
Collection Albert Pollak (1878–1943), Vienna;
confiscation of his collection through the Gestapo 1938;
seizure of the collection to the storage of the Central Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments (Zentralstelle für Denkmalschutz) 1939;
confiscation of the entire property through the Gestapo 1940;
allocated to the Joanneum Graz 1942 (Inventarnummer II/1844) – remained in the museum;
restitution to the legal successors after Albert Pollak am 13. April 1951;
restitution to the legal successors of Albert Pollak 12th October 2021.

We are grateful to Dr. Maria Luise Sternath for the scientific support.

In 1839 Rudolf von Alt sojourned in Moravia and Bohemia, where he visited castles and also Prague. Then Alt traveled to Galicia on behalf of the Viennese art dealer HF Müller in order to make studies of the country and the people in a remote part of the monarchy for an album with views of the Austrian monarchy, such as Tymiez at Vistula river, Wadowice, Alt-Sandecz and Pukla. The studies were eventually partly transferred into the new technique of colored lithographs.

Literature:
Walter Koschatzky, Rudolf von Alt 1812–1905, Salzburg 1975, p 266, No. 39/23;
Rudolf von Alt 1812–1905, Die schönsten Aquarelle aus acht Jahrzehnten seines Schaffens, 294. Exhibition of the Albertina 1984, Catalogue p. 57.