Matthias Rudolf Toma

Hugo Marmorek (later Howard Madison), Vienna and Detroit;

Thence by descent to the present owners. 

Capturing views in and around Vienna was a specialty of the Austrian painter, Rudolf Matthias Toma. Between 1824-1834, Toma captured several versions of this particular view of Vienna from the Krafpfenwaldl. In size and composition, the present lot is almost identical to a panel by the artist today in the Belvedere in Vienna.¹ The only difference between the two is that the present lot does not feature reclining figures in the foreground, but rather takes as its subject an atmospheric view of the Austrian capital on a clear, crisp day. 

The Krafpfenwaldl is a high, forested hill in Vienna offering panoramic views of the capital. The name for this elevation is said to have arisen from an 18th century war councilor named Franz Joseph Krapf, who built a house on these forested lands. By 1806, the lands came under the ownership of Johann, Prince of Liechtenstein, who had the area gracefully designed for locals to enjoy, even building his own summer house at the peak. Walks in these beautiful forests inspired Johann Strauss's 1869 Polka, Im Krapfenwald'l.

1. Inv. no. 5821, oil on panel, 35 by 43 cm., signed and dated lower right: M.R. Toma / f.A.1834. https://sammlung.belvedere.at/objects/4570/blick-auf-wien-vom-krapfenwaldl