Long out of fashion, the art associated with the Biedermeier period – which reflected the cosy tastes of the German bourgeoisie in the first half of the 19th century – seems to be having a moment. The Austrian painter Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793–1865) is one of the artists associated with Biedermeier, but he didn’t always play it safe. After painting portraits and copying Old Masters early in his youth, he spent his thirties exploring the possibilities of landscape painting. Views of the Salzkammergut and the woodlands of Vienna capture the grandeur and greenery of his native land in ways that seem somewhat idealised. Waldmüller’s insistence on depicting nature in meticulous detail set him at odds with Austria’s artistic establishment and he was eventually dismissed as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna for criticising its teaching methods. This exhibition at the Belvedere brings together many of his paintings with work by Constable, Corot and other peers and predecessors to make a case for the artist’s singular talent (27 February–14 June).
Find out more from the Belvedere’s website.
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