Boat Trip of the Painter Franz Steinfeld Across Lake Gosau

From around 1830, Viennese landscape painters discovered the lakes of the Salzkammergut, just as city people were starting to travel into the Alps for pleasure. They came only for the summer, since a living from art could be made in Vienna alone. Franz Steinfeld, then about 50, led the way, and his views of these lakes became a model for the new Austrian landscape. In 1837 Eybl, nearly 20 years younger, painted him afloat on the Gosausee. Steinfeld stands behind a young local woman in a flowered green hat, who works a long oar. Beyond them the Dachstein and its glacier rise over the water, and rain is sweeping across the peaks. A pack and a furled umbrella lie ready in the boat. The panel belongs to a private collection and has been on long-term loan to the Belvedere since 2017.