Anton Romako

Lot description

(Atzgersdorf 1832–1889 Vienna) Madonna and Child, c. 1870, signed twice A. Romako a Roma and A. Romako, oil on canvas, 145 x 118 cm, framed Provenance: Sale, Mathias Löscher, Vienna, 20-21 November 1879, lot 158; Sale, Galerie Miethke, Vienna, 2 December 1885, lot 171; Collection Olga Dvoràk, Brno; Art trade, L. T. Neumann, Vienna; Satzger family, Vienna; Galerie Hassfurther, Vienna, 1979; Dr. Peter Schilling, Vienna; Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 7 April 2000, lot 152; Galerie Hassfurther, Vienna, 2001; Private Collection, Austria. Illustrated and registered in: Cornelia Reiter, Anton Romako. Pionier und Außenseiter der Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts. Monografie mit Werkverzeichnis, Vienna 2010, cat. rais. no. 245, ill. p. 90. Exhibited: Rome, Exhibition of Christian Art, Vatican 1870, no. 268; Vienna, Künstlerhaus 1876; Salzburg, Künstlerhaus 1889; Vienna, Der Aussenseiter Anton Romako, Österreichische Galerie, Belvedere, 22 May - 12 July 1992, no. 109. Literature: Allgemeine Kunstchronik, year 13, no. 6, Vienna 1889, p. 158; Ludwig Hevesi, Anton Romako, Vienna 1909, p. 121; Fritz Novotny, Anton Romako, Vienna 1954, cat. rais. 416; Fritz Novotny, Anton Romako, Vienna 1965, cat. rais. 151 B; Gerbert Frodl, Anton Romako. Ein Maler der Ringstraßenzeit, catalogue of the exhibition, Belvedere Vienna 1992, p. 44; Elfriede Wiltschnigg, “Das Rätsel Weib”. Das Bild der Frau in Wien um 1900, Berlin 2001, ill. p. 181. Anton Romako was one of the earliest and most radical new thinkers within the 19th century art movement focused entirely on realism. This is evident in this early interpretation of one of the most important themes in Christian art, the Madonna and Child, created in Rome at the end of the 1860s. However, Romako loosens the close connection between mother and child and positions the young girl Mary in the centre, but kneeling in front of the blessing child Jesus, who – surprisingly -stands at the edge of the picture. The painting caused quite a stir in Rome, where it was displayed at the Vatican’s Christian art exhibition, and was also critically discussed in the Viennese press. A “disturbing turn” was noted in Romako’s work, placing Christ on the edge of the image was considered outrageous. (cf. Reiter, p. 89). Ultimately, however, it is precisely these dislocations from the traditional context, these exaggerations of reality, that lend the depiction its irritating yet fascinating expression and gives the traditional sujet a new intensity.