(Vienna, 1828 - Vienna, 1899)
On the shores of a lake in the Austrian Alps
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated lower right
53 x 80 cm
1877
Josef Thoma, son of Josef Thoma father (Vienna 1800-?) was born September 28, 1828 in Vienna.
He was probably trained by his father before completing his studies at the Academy of Vienna. After completing his training, he settled as a landscape painter in the Austrian capital.
The most frequent motifs in his paintings, watercolors and drawings were alpine landscapes, usually Zillerstal, Pustertal and Steyrtal. He was also well known for his cityscapes of Ischl and Salzburg.
Clearly influenced by the Romantic movement and in particular by artists like Eugène Delacroix or Caspar David Friedrich, Thoma knew how to paint a skillfully manipulated light, just like large natural spaces rendered with poetry and striking verism.
Also sensitive to the orientalist movement, he painted some foreign landscapes, most often Constantinople and its surroundings.
He also worked under the pseudonym J. Gärtner.
Josef Thoma died in Vienna on December 15, 1899.
Museum: Vienna