Hohe Warte in Wintertime, 1904

Carl Moll (1861–1945) encountered this motif in his neighborhood at Hohe Warte in Vienna’s Döbling district, which was home to an artists’ colony with houses designed by Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956). In 1901 Koloman Moser (1868–1918) and Carl Moll moved into a duplex house with their families. Moll was a founding member of the Vienna Secession and a magnificent organizer of exhibitions in his capacity as artistic director of Galerie Miethke. With this painting, he carried on from the Austrian Atmospheric Impressionism espoused by his teacher Emil Jakob Schindler (1842–1892). The tranquil motif shows a snowy landscape in winter with dim lighting. The foreground is occupied by an old tree, its dark branches standing out against the white snow-covered background. The snowy path leads into the depth of the depiction. No one has walked it yet, the blanket of snow is still untouched.

BL, 2021