Born in 1872, Impressionist Rudolf Quittner was an Austrian landscape and genre painter who was a virtuoso at capturing the effects of air and light on canvas. He first studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and later became a student at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he focused intensively on landscape painting. Quittner was a student of Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley and was not only inspired by Claude Monet, but also promoted by him. He traveled throughout almost all of Europe, the Orient, and North America for study purposes and, beginning in 1901, lived in Paris during the summer and spent his winters in Vienna.
Rudolf Quittner exhibited at the Biennale di Venezia, in the Vienna Künstlerhaus and at the most important art fairs of his time in Paris, Berlin, Munich, Düsseldorf and Dresden. His paintings were well received by the art critics and journalists of his time and his works are now exhibited in museums such as the Belvedere and the Wien Museum.
This painting demonstrates Quittner’s talent and the influence of his dual training in a particularly impressive way. While the sky and water surface are masterfully captured on canvas in the tradition of the great French Impressionists, the tree and meadow are painted entirely in the unique style of the Viennese Secession. Both elements merge into a masterful whole in this work, creating a unique and wonderful work of art.
