AMERLING, Friedrich von

The Countess N�k�, n�e Berta Gyerty�nffy (1820-82), the wife of a Transylvanian aristocrat who lived in Vienna and Pest alternatively, was an exceptional personality. While her contemporaries appeared timid and docile, she was a self-assured woman. She is seated at her desk in a dignified pose; the writing utensils indicate that her interest went beyond the narrow limits of family life. She learnt to paint from Amerling; she was an excellent pianist, as well as a composer of music. Her salon was frequented by musicians and painters, including Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. Amerling did not disguise the countess’s magnetic, matured womanliness. By including personal objects and the dog nuzzling to its mistress, in the grandiose composition, Amerling created a portrait which is near to genre painting.

Amerling was the favourite court painter and from 1830 one of the most popular artist in Vienna. His reputation was based on the life-size portrait of Emperor Franz in 1832. In this portrait the traditional Baroque attributes of a royal portrait are combined with a depiction of “natural man”. This is what makes the portrait unconventional.

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From the early 1830s to approximately 1850 Amerling was Vienna’s most celebrated portraitist. A likeness, almost identical to this portrait and entitled Modest Susanna, was executed in 1837.

The portrait represents an example of one of Amerling’s favourite compositional schemata to position the bare-backed sitter, turned away from the beholder. Effective highlights lend a soft gleam to the young face and betray the influence of Thomas Lawrence’s art of portraiture.

Count Istv�n Sz�chenyi (1792-1860) was an outstanding figure of the first half of the 19th century in Hungary. Among other achievements he was the founder of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Friedrich Amerling painted several intimate portraits of the children of the Liechtenstein family.

Amerling worked in a style that combined the elegance of British portraiture with the realism of the Viennese Biedermeier tradition. His sitters included not only members of the royal family but also the wealthy upper classes, prominent citizens and even fellow artists. He also produced a number of portrait studies such as this picture, which show just the sitter’s head. These studies are notable for their spontaneity and immediacy.

From 1830 one of the most popular artist in Vienna. The full title of the painting is: Rudolf von Arthaber with his Children, Rudolf, Emilie and Gustav, Looking at the Portrait of their Dead Mother.

In this unfinished self-portrait the artist depicted himself in profile from the left and with a serious and attentive look. He dispensed with any attributes of his art, such as brush or easel, and did not adopt an artificial pose, contenting himself with a clearly circumscribed partial view.