Friedrich von Amerling

[Valentino Radman]

Several days ago, while watching a TV documentary on Austro-Hungarian empire, I spotted a portrait of emperor Franz I, which was shown for a second or two. I browsed the Net, looking for identity of its author.

It was Friedrich von Amerling, a classicist painter who after studying years at Prague Academy, met Sir Thomas Lawrence on his visit to London. Lawrence's work was a strong influence on his painting in the first two decades of Amerling's career.

[Valentino Radman]

Amerling's portrait of Countess N

[Valentino Radman]

A lovely, Vermeer influenced (my guess) piece:

[Valentino Radman]

Amerling's self portrait:

[Valentino Radman]

I came across this 14" x 22" painting while searching for Amerling's work. It's another Austrian 19th century painter, Friedrich Loos. (Austrian patrons of the time did not take seriously any artist with a name different from Friedrich.)

It is an interesting example of a cityscape artist's painting procedure. The finished part was rendered in oil, while the cathedral is washed with brown ink. The buildings around her are outlined in ink as well (or pencil?).

I assume Canaletto employed a similar technique. I always thought that rendering of all those intricate architectural details would have been almost impossible without overdiluting the oil paints. Or using ink instead.

[Timothy C. Tyler]

I like the first and last ones-best. There is quite a range of style there.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Nice work,

I especially like the third one, which has very nice rich colors. There are so many wonderful artists out there that we do not hear about, and I wanted to thank you for bringing this one to our attention.

[Linda Brandon]

Dear Valentino,

These are marvelous paintings, and I find something to learn from in each of them. Thanks for sharing them. It's exciting to "discover" new artists.

Best regards,
Linda