The Ruins of the Temple of Juno Lacinia

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Lake Wolfgang, 1835 

Room 1 in the National Gallery currently has a free exhibition of landscape paintings by the Austrian artist Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793–1865). When he started painting studies of the trees around Vienna and Alpine landscape near Salzburg, he was already a well-established portrait painter. This change of course may have been influenced by a trip to Paris in 1830 - his diary records that he saw a Constable there. My photo above of his beautiful 1835 painting Lake Wolfgang can't capture the subtlety of those indigo shades used for the water and mountain slopes. Nineteenth century critics complained that his naturalistic style 'bordered on 'daguerrotype-like precision', but they must have been impressed by how he managed to paint those tiny clouds and distant details with such realism.

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, The Ruins of the Greek Theatre at Taormina and Mount Etna, 1844

In the 1840s he headed south, where the bright sunlight suited his style. I have stood at this spot in Taormina and photographed Etna above the ruined theatre. The mountain and the sea still looked just like this. However, the Teatro antico was partly covered by protective hoardings (covered in adverts) for renovation work and the main theatre area was cleared of those ancient stones Waldmüller painted and covered with metal seating. From a landscape aesthetics perspective it's a shame, but I have to admit it seems good that this ancient site is being used again for music. As I write this, the next performance they have scheduled is by Italian rapper called Coez.   

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, The Ruins of the Temple of Juno Lacinia near Agrigento, 1846

Here is another view in Sicily, so lifelike you feel you can walk into the painting and wander among those olive trees. The accompanying wall text has a nice phrase, describing the temple 'silhouetted against a pale blue sky drained of colour by the heat.' A catalogue essay by Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt notes the way a few elements are particularly well defined, 'like the leaves on the trees on the right and the stones and shrub on the left of the foreground. The crowns of the olive trees further away are skilfully modulated and reproduce the colours as closely as possible to how they appear when lit by bright sunlight.' She also quotes Hermann Bahr, a champion of the Vienna Secession, writing at a time when Waldmüller's work was being appreciated by a new generation. 'What power, what life, what sunshine! ...  He already knew back then what light is, he already knew back then what air is.'