Self-Portrait as a Young Man

Belvedere, Oberes Belvedere, 1. Obergeschoß (West), Raum SW1
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Permalinkhttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/7921/selbstportrat-in-jungen-jahren
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Künstler*in Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793 Wien – 1865 Hinterbrühl)

Object typeGemälde
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
95 × 75 cm
SignatureBez. unten links: Waldmüller 1828 Aet. 35
Inventory number2121
Locations Belvedere, Oberes Belvedere, 1. Obergeschoß (West), Raum SW1
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller presents himself in this self-portrait not in the classical artist’s pose in front of an easel with a brush and palette but as a fashionably dressed young man in a landscape setting. Right after completion, he showed the painting in 1828 at an exhibition at the Vienna academy, where he attracted considerable public attention. Although painted in a studio, the portrait convincingly simulates the open-air setting. Waldmüller succeeds in bathing the figure and landscape in the same light. Underneath his signature, which indicates that he was thirty-five years old at the time, is a peony, referring cleverly to his great skill as a flower painter. His versatility made him one of the most sought-after artists in Vienna.

Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria