| This picture shows the centre of the artificial landscape with fantastical architectural elements laid out by the Liechtenstein family after they had re-acquired the site of their ancestral home in 1806. This was rapidly transformed after the model of an English landscape garden, and artificial ruins, an amphitheatre, the Hussars’ Temple and other such structures were erected. As in the case of his Sicilian landscapes, Waldmüller shows his subject an uncharitably dazzling and harsh light, but the intensity lessens towards the background, where billowing smoke envelops the landscape in a soft, subdued light. Waldmüller here effectively blends the harsh light of his Sicilian landscapes with the sfumato effect of aerial perspective that is subtly suggestive of atmosphere. |
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Oil on panel
height 42 cm, width 53 cm
Signed and dated at lower left: Waldmüller 1859.
Inv.-No. GE1603
Provenance: Leistler Collection, Vienna; before 1885 in the collection of Julius Trenkler, Vienna; acqired in 1891 by Prince Johann II von Liechtenstein at the auction house of C.J. Wawra, Vienna
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| Further works on display |
 | | View of Mödling, 1848 | |
| | Lime-kiln in the Hinterbrühl, c. 1845 | |
| | The Ruins of the Greek Theatre at Taormina on Sicily, 1844 | |
| | Portrait of the architect Charles de Moreau (1758-1841), 1822 | |
| | The Ruins of the Temple of Juno Lacinia at Agrigento, c. 1845 | |
| | Lake Fuschl with the Schafberg, c. 1835 | |
| | Portrait of Thiery, Landlord of the Wolf-in-the-Meadow Inn, 1833 | |
| | Portrait of the Future Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria (1830-1916) as a Grenadier with Toy Soldiers, 1832 | |
| | Revival to New Life, 1852 | |
| | Maternal Admonition, 1850 | |
| | The lesson, 1837 | |
| | Ruines of the greek theater in Taormina towards the straits of Messina, 1844 | |
| | The halted Pilgrimage, 1853 | |
| | Roses, 1843 | |
| | Flowers in a Porcelain Vase with Candlestick and Silver Vessels, 1839 |
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| Related themes |
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