Alley in Malcesine

When Tarnóczy painted this, sometime between 1900 and 1905, Malcesine was the northernmost Italian town on the eastern shore of Lake Garda. Just beyond its boundary the Austrian border began, and the top of the lake, with Riva and Torbole, stayed Habsburg territory until the end of the First World War. For a painter living in Vienna, this was the first stretch of Italy. She looks along a sloping lane between two long stone walls, one in shadow, the other in full sun, toward the roofs and bell tower of Malcesine. Tall pines and dark cypresses rise beside the path. Far off, a donkey and two figures are heading for the houses. Beyond the water on the left, the steep cliffs of the far shore turn violet in the haze. She signed the canvas low in the corner.