Walking the Forest in the Evening (1874) | August Schaeffer von Weinwald

AUGUST SCHAEFFER VON WIENWALD
Austria, 1833-1916

Walking in the Forest at Evening (1874)

Oil on artist card | signed lower left "Aug. Schaeffer 1874." | reverse with label for "Maler-Press-Carton / erfonden Año 1832 / von Joh. Hall / Stadt 1055 / IN WEIN" (mostly faded and rubbed away)

Item # 406HPN02Z  A rich and exciting depiction of a solitary figure walking down an overgrown dirt path through a grove of trees beneath a brilliant blue sky doppled with puffy clouds at the horizon while behind the viewer the sun is setting. Intense golden light is coming into the trees and bringing an extraordinary shift in saturation to the mid-upper quarter of the scene, a brilliant transition of the overall palette from the cooler low-chroma pigments of the shadows and shade. The work is signed in the lower left corner in a orange-red pigment and dated for 1874 while the back retains only part of the label from the artist cardstock supplier along with various numbers and illegible inscriptions. AUGUST SCHAEFFER VON WEINWALD
Born in Vienna, Austria on April 30th of 1833, August Schaeffer was a pupil of Franz Steinfeld at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He worked subsequently at the Vienna Central Library, at the Academy Art Gallery and at the Imperial Museum. He became the director of the museum in 1892. His work is held in the permanent collections of Buffalo (St. Wolfgang Lake), Tbilisi (Caucasus Landscapes, a set of 10), Vienna at the Liechtenstein Museum (A March Day in the Viennese Forest), Vienna at the Österreichische Gallery Belvedere (On the Way to the Vienna Exhibition of 1873; At the Vienna Zoo; Near Caroline Lock; Gothic Bridge at Laxenburg; Views of Laxenburg, a set of 14). (Source: Benezit) Artist Listings & Bibliography: E. Benezit Dictionary of Artists, Vol. XII, Gründ, 2006, p. 524-525
Measurements: 24 5/8" H x 19 3/4" W [frame]; 21 1/8" H x 16 3/8" W [artist card] Condition Report:
A very fine presentation, ready to place. The painting was professionally cleaned by our conservator and carefully examined for condition: board in excellent condition, a light age related craquelure throughout, no losses under the varnish layer (which was extremely dirty and stubborn) other than very minor rubbing around the extreme edges of the painting; surface was then sealed in a traditional dammar varnish. Under UV shows extensive flaring because of the fresh varnish. Faux-burlwood frame is not original and presents with some rubbing and losses as well as some light gapping in the corners.