Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller

This provincial exhibition to mark the centenary of the death of the famous Biedermeier painter was organized by the Lower Austrian Provincial Museum in collaboration with the Austrian Gallery in Vienna. In the Höldrichsmühle in Hinterbrühl, 29 oil paintings and numerous sketchbooks were on display, as well as various documents, letters and memorabilia. Not far from the Höldrichsmühle, in the old Helmstreitmühle, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller died on August 23, 1865.

The list of lenders included not only domestic museums, but also collections and galleries from Vaduz, Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart and Wuppertal. The sum insured for the exhibits amounted to around twelve million schillings. Waldmüller was equally successful in his work in landscape, portrait and genre painting. His paintings are still extremely popular today, although Waldmüller is often misunderstood as a depictor of Biedermeier idylls.

This exhibition was intended to continue what the Lower Austrian Provincial Museum had already successfully done in previous years: their works were shown where the artists lived and worked. The aim was for visitors to recognize what motivated the artists to create their works in this way and no other. Waldmüller spent the last years of his life in Hinterbrühl.

Never before has the artist's late work been shown so united in the landscape that provided him with so much inspiration. “Most of the paintings on show will be those that were created in the midst of the landscape that they glorify and that Waldmüller loved so much. These are paintings that were painted in the immediate vicinity of the exhibition venue, so that the viewer is able to confront nature and art,” wrote Minister of Education Theodor Piffl-Perčević.

Deputy Governor Rudolf Hirsch took a similar view: “If you continue your hike after visiting the exhibition, you are sure to find one or two motifs that remind you of the colorful paintings of the Vienna Woods painter, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, despite the buildings and labyrinth of fences. For many paintings, the exact location where the artist's easel stood more than a hundred years ago can still be determined today.”

It was in Gaaden that Ferdinand Raimund wrote his “Verschwender”, and it was at the romantic Johannstein ruins that he was inspired to write the scenes of his “Alpenkönig und Menschenfeind”. A trip to the memorial in Gaaden or to the nature park in Sparbach were therefore the perfect complement to a cultural excursion to Hinterbrühl for many visitors to the provincial exhibition.

Höldrichsmühle, Hinterbrühl