Michael Wutky

(Krems 1739–1823 Vienna)
A Mediterranean landscape with shepherds and their flock,
oil on canvas, 115 x 148 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection Theresine Brüll-Neuda (1862-1934), Vienna;
her sale, S. Kende, Vienna, 16 November 1934, lot 248;
Private collection, Vienna;
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 16 October 2007, lot 31;
Private collection, Germany

In 1759 Wutky was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna as a student of Martin van Mythens the Younger and Johann Christian Brand. Wutky later moved to Italy and settled in Rome. Frequent journeys to Naples provided him with inspiration for his famous paintings of volcanic eruptions. His studies, which he executed in situ, were long considered the most precise scientific representations of volcanism. Because of such classical landscapes as the present painting, his contemporaries placed Wutky on an equal footing with Jacob Philipp Hackert, who was something of a rival. Having returned to Vienna in 1801, Wutky travelled to Italy once more in 1805 and managed to repeat his earlier successes. His style of painting marks the transition from Baroque drama to an ideal landscape approach.