Laxenburg from the Pavilion on the Hana Meadow, Looking toward Mödling

In the middle of this view lies Laxenburg itself, the palace and the village with its church tower, and behind them rise the wooded hills above Mödling, the edge of the Vienna Woods. Brand painted it in 1758 for the rooms at Laxenburg, which Maria Theresa was enlarging in those years. The Belvedere calls it the first of four such views and notes what was new about them: they record real, recognisable country, at a time when painted landscapes were usually invented. The occasion is heron hawking. The raised pavilion in the foreground is meant for the empress, who could watch the falcons from it with her residence in sight. Here it is already filling with guests, carriages wait beside it, and grooms hold the horses in the crowd below. The four canvases stayed at Laxenburg until 1922, when they passed to the Belvedere.