Rudolf von Alt

Rudolf von Alt was born on 28 August 1812 in a suburb of Vienna known as Alservorstadt. He was the eldest son of Jakob Alt, who had, the previous year, moved from Frankfurt to Vienna, and Anna Schaller, who originally came from Lower Austria. Early on, he started working in his father’s studio and soon surpassed him in artistic talent. In 1826 Rudolf enrolled at the Vienna Academy; by 1829 he had matured as a watercolourist and his works already show a painter of budding genius. In 1828 he travelled with his father through the Alps to Venice; in 1835 he journeyed for the first time to Rome, Naples and Capri. His art reached its first zenith in the 1840s but after the death of his young wife Rudolf von Alt sunk into depression while the unrest of the revolution in 1848 also contributed to his difficulties. His precarious financial situation forced him to paint palace interiors – an arduous task for the artist who almost lost his eyesight. In 1863 he was commissioned to work in the Crimea and paint watercolours of a new palace for the tsar. This was followed by a trip to Rome and a further journey through Italy with Sicily as his final destination in 1867. In 1874 Alt became President of the Vienna Künstlerhaus. In 1875 the Austrian government commissioned him to paint the Empire’s most impressive buildings. He was raised to the nobility in 1882. Public honours, avid collectors and the admiration of the avant-garde (at the age of eighty-five he became honorary president of the Secession) all confirm his success. In his late work he abandoned naturalism in favor of a luminous, impressionistic and liberated style of painting, setting new compositional standards. Rudolf von Alt was undoubtedly one of the greatest watercolourists. He died in Vienna on 12 March 1905.