Rider

In the summer of 1872 a group of young Viennese landscape painters went out into the Danube country east of the city to work in the open air, among them Emil Jakob Schindler and Franz Rumpler. Tina Blau joined them there, most likely near the village of Kroatisch-Haslau, and this small oil study probably dates from those weeks. A rider, seen from behind, heads down a rutted track in full sun with a second horse alongside, under a grey sky laid in with loose, quick strokes. Rumpler painted the same scene, and his version also belongs to the Belvedere. Blau signed hers in the lower corner and added the year. The museum bought the study only recently, which brought its holdings of her work to 16 pieces.