REBELL, Joseph - b. 1787 Wien, d. 1828 Dresden

Austrian painter. He studied (1808-10) at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. His early work is heavily influenced by classicism and by heroic depictions of landscape in the manner of Claude. Of decisive importance was his long stay in Italy: in Milan (1810-11), Naples (1813-15) and Rome (1816-24). Influenced by such artists who had worked in Rome as Joseph Vernet and Joseph Anton Koch, he turned to the genre of the veduta, producing such works as View from Posillipo on Capri (1821; Munich, Neue Pinakothek). However, he reached his full development as a landscape painter only after 1824, when he was appointed Director of the Imperial Picture Gallery in the Belvedere in Vienna by Emperor Francis. He held this office until his early death while on a visit to Dresden in 1828.

For the Emperor he painted a series of works depicting the imperial residences in Lower Austria (e.g. View of the Estate of Emmersdorf, 1826; Vienna, Belvedere), in which the style is similar to that of Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller.

The Mole at Portici

This small painting depicts the harbour of a small fishing village near Naples.

Rebell’s landscape works show the strong influence of English and French landscape painters - artists who Rebell met while in Italy - and their penchant for realism. Although his landscapes have a rather understated emotionality they nevertheless demonstrate a certain atmospheric quality that places Rebell in the company of the early landscape realists. In Rebell’s work, idealistic composition and heroic staffage groupings are replaced by scenes filled with serenity and sensitive light plays.