Rudolf Ritter von Alt (; 28 August 1812 – 12 March 1905) was an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
and
architectural painter
Architectural painting (also Architecture painting) is a form of genre painting where the predominant focus lies on architecture, including both outdoor and interior views. While architecture was present in many of the earliest paintings and illum ...
. Born as Rudolf Alt, he could call himself
von
The term ''von'' () is used in German language surnames either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble patrilineality, or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means ''of'' or ''from''.
Nobility directories like the ''Almanach de ...
Alt and bear the title of a
Ritter (knight) after he gained nobility in 1889.
Biography
Born in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
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, timezone_DST ...
, he was the son of the
lithograph
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
er
Jakob Alt (1789–1871) and the brother of the painter
Franz Alt (1821–1914). He studied at the
Akademie der bildenden Künste
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria.
History
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...
in Vienna. Hiking-trips through the Austrian
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
and northern Italy awoke a love for landscapes, and he painted with his brush using
watercolors
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
in a very realistic and detailed style. In 1833, inspired by a visit to
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
and neighbouring cities, he also made a number of architectural paintings.
Alt demonstrated a remarkable talent for expressing certain peculiarities in nature. He managed to paint nature authentically by focusing on the different hues of sky, the colour-tone of the air and the vegetation. His later works came closer to
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
. His perspectives on architecture were interesting, and he often chose everyday objects to paint. The painting of
interior views also became one of his strong points, giving him attention in Vienna.
He visited and worked for a while in Rome and
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
; after that he visited the lakes of
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
, then
Galicia,
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
,
Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...
, Bavaria and then returned multiple times to Italy. In 1863 he went to the
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
to paint some views of an estate of the Empress, and in 1867 he went to
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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.
Alt died in Vienna in 1905. Most of his paintings are held by various museums in Vienna. The
Albertina
The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...
in Vienna hosted a
retrospective
A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...
exhibition from September 2005 to January 2006.
Notes
*
See also
*
List of Austrian artists and architects
This is a list of notable Austrian artists and architects.
__NOTOC__
A
* Josef Abel (1768–1818) painter
* Erika Abels d'Albert (1896–1975), painter and graphic designer
* Raimund Abraham (1933–2010) architect
* Soshana Afroyim (1 ...
External links
*
Rudolf von Alt collectionat the Israel Museum. Retrieved September 2016
*
ttp://www.albertina.at Albertina Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alt, Rudolf von
1812 births
1905 deaths
19th-century Austrian painters
19th-century Austrian male artists
20th-century Austrian painters
20th-century Austrian male artists
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni
Austrian knights
Austrian landscape painters
Austrian male painters
Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery