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Lot Essay
The present work, painted in 1834, is a tour de force by Austria's leading painter of the Biedermeier. Primarily known for his genre paintings, Waldmüller himself considered his artist’s calling to be the representation of nature. As he wrote in 1846: 'recognition that nature must be the only source and sum total of our study; there alone can be found the eternal truth and beauty, the expression of which must be the artist's highest aim in every branch of the plastic arts.' (quoted in A. Roessler, G. Pisko, Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller: Sein Leben, sein Werk und seine Schriften, Vienna, 1907, vol II, p. 9).
View of lake Altaussee and the Dachstein belongs to a sequence of landscapes painted in the Salzkammergut, an area in which Waldmüller spent his summers from 1829 until 1843. This period is regarded as the climax of his development as a landscape painter and by 1834 the majority of his artistic output consisted almost entirely of landscapes painted in the Salzkammergut. These sojourns in the mountains seem to have giving him the opportunity to liberate himself from formal portraiture which had dominated his career so far. He quickly became fascinated by the untouched and pristine nature of the surrounding landscape 'Waldmüller was captivated by the pristine green wilderness in its summery growth, the narrowly limited segment of nature with its cool shadows and the grasses and stones, branches and leaves, glowing in warm, sunlit colours..The lack of aerial perspective in the high mountains favoured Waldmüller’s artistic intentions, making the faraway mountain chains and forest slopes appear as clear and as tangible as the foreground motifs, with no loss of definition in the distance, which for Waldmüller was an essential requirement.' (B. Grimschitz, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Salzburg, 1957, p. 47)
Based on his own observation from a real vantage point, View of lake Altaussee and the Dachstein reveals Waldmüller’s ability to create a remarkable sense of recession and depth using an extremely precise technique reproducing both the smallest background details and the principle foreground elements without losing definition. The landscape betrays the idiosyncrasy of a Biedermeier landscape with its luminosity, contrast of light and shadow, symphony of colour, the sunlit mountain peaks reflecting in the shimmering blue of the lake, and just a small cluster of houses to remind us of human existence. Dating from 1834, Waldmüller’s plein-air landscapes from this period can be regarded as a milestone on the way to modernism.
View of lake Altaussee and the Dachstein belongs to a sequence of landscapes painted in the Salzkammergut, an area in which Waldmüller spent his summers from 1829 until 1843. This period is regarded as the climax of his development as a landscape painter and by 1834 the majority of his artistic output consisted almost entirely of landscapes painted in the Salzkammergut. These sojourns in the mountains seem to have giving him the opportunity to liberate himself from formal portraiture which had dominated his career so far. He quickly became fascinated by the untouched and pristine nature of the surrounding landscape 'Waldmüller was captivated by the pristine green wilderness in its summery growth, the narrowly limited segment of nature with its cool shadows and the grasses and stones, branches and leaves, glowing in warm, sunlit colours..The lack of aerial perspective in the high mountains favoured Waldmüller’s artistic intentions, making the faraway mountain chains and forest slopes appear as clear and as tangible as the foreground motifs, with no loss of definition in the distance, which for Waldmüller was an essential requirement.' (B. Grimschitz, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Salzburg, 1957, p. 47)
Based on his own observation from a real vantage point, View of lake Altaussee and the Dachstein reveals Waldmüller’s ability to create a remarkable sense of recession and depth using an extremely precise technique reproducing both the smallest background details and the principle foreground elements without losing definition. The landscape betrays the idiosyncrasy of a Biedermeier landscape with its luminosity, contrast of light and shadow, symphony of colour, the sunlit mountain peaks reflecting in the shimmering blue of the lake, and just a small cluster of houses to remind us of human existence. Dating from 1834, Waldmüller’s plein-air landscapes from this period can be regarded as a milestone on the way to modernism.