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ONLINECOLLECTION

On the Danube Canal, 1907

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Oil on canvas
63.5×47.5 cm

Artists

  • Richard Gerstl

    (Vienna 1883–1908 Vienna)

Currently on display at OG3
The background in the picture shows the new residential buildings that sprang up during the modernization of Vienna in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The painter Richard Gerstl (1883–1908), who lived in Vienna’s 9th District, chose to depict the view of the Danube Canal and its embankment from a distance. The street running along the canal is lined with trees. Gerstl had intensively dedicated himself to plein-air panting in the summer and applied many of the painting techniques he had tested in his landscapes of Gmunden to autumnal impressions of the city after his return to Vienna in the autumn of 1907. In this painting, the artist employs a mix of different painting styles. While the vegetation at the center is rendered in small patches and dots, he applies the paint for the water and the riverbank in thick, pastose layers, using broad brushstrokes. For the gray autumn sky, which is rendered in thinly applied paint and evokes a bleak atmosphere, he even uses the wooden handle of his brush.

Object data

Artist/author
  • Richard Gerstl
Title
On the Danube Canal
Date
1907
Art movement
Expressionism
Category
Painting
Material​/technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
63.5×47.5 cm
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 649
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
  • Richard Gerstl. Inspiration - Vermächtnis, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger u.a., Köln 2019 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 27.09.2019-20.01.2020).
  • Wien 1900. Aufbruch in die Moderne, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Wien 2019 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, ab 15.03.2019).
Keywords

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Nachlass Richard Gerstl, Wien (1908);
August und Alois Gerstl, Wien (1908-1931); (1)
Neue Galerie, Wien (1931-1954); (2)
Galerie Würthle, Wien (1954-1976); (3)
Hans Dichand, Wien (1976-1982); (4)
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (1982-1994); (5)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (seit 1994).

  1. Bildvorderseite: Nachlassbestätigung; Otto Kallir: Richard Gerstl (1883-1908). Beiträge zur Dokumentation seines Lebens und Werkes, in: Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Galerie, Jg. 18 (1974), Nr. 62, S. 125.
  2. Kallir, Gerstl, 154f. u. 126f. Dr. Otto Nirenstein erstellt 1931 ein Nachlassverzeichnis, das Bild “Am Donaukanal” erhält die Nummer 30. Ankauf von 36 Gemälden von Alois Gerstl.
  3. Kallir, Gerstl, 135; Katalog der Biennale in Venedig 1956, Nr. 4, „Canale del Danubio“, Katalog der Secession, Wien 1966, Nr. 20
  4. Susanne Bichler, 1865 – 1995: Ein Überblick, in: Galerie Würthle, Katalog zu „Galerie Würthle. Gegründet 1865“, Jubiläumsausstellung, Wien 1995, S. 9-16, S. 14f.
  5. Archiv des Leopold Museums, Vereinbarung zwischen Hans Dichand und Dr. Rudolf Leopold vom 24.12.1982

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