Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
(Vienna 1793 - 1865 Hinterbrühl near Vienna)
Off to Church in Spring
Oil on Canvas
44 x 55 cm
Framed, signed and dated "Waldmüller 1863"
framed
Catalogued and illustrated in: Bruno Grimschitz, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, published by Galerie Welz, Salzburg 1957, p.366, no. 983.
Rupert Feuchtmüller, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller 1793–1865, Leben, Schriften, Werke. With a catalogue raisonné by C. Wöhrer, Vienna 1996, p.524, no.1065. Letter of authentication issued by Bruno Grimschitz, dated March 1951, available; Letter of authentication issued by Dr. Gerbert Frodl, dated July 2012, available.
Provenance: Aenne Abels, Rheinischer Kunstsalon Cologne; Galerie J. Stuker, Bern, 24th art exhibition November 1951, no. 2360.
The present artwork is the second repeat of a composition which Waldmüller arranged for the first time in 1862 (cf. Feuchtmüller CR no. 1048; in the Museum Carolino Augusteum in Salzburg, and Feuchtmüller CR no. 1064; in the Wien Museum).
Rupert Feuchtmüller writes of this painting:
In all three paintings three women, presumably grandmother, mother and daughter, hold sprays of flowers which are probably intended to decorate the picture of a saint. The prayer book which the young woman is holding in front of her eyes, protecting them from the dazzling rays of the morning sun, suggests that the women are on their way to church. The old woman, gazing down at the steeply sloping path, is being supported by the younger one. The chief subject of the painting is indeed the overgrown hillside with bushes, partly lying in shadow and partly illuminated by streaks of sunlight. Yet the bright red and blue of the women’s clothes are focal points, acting as counterweights at the edge of the painting where the view opens up to reveal the landscape. (p. 284)
