Rudolf von Alt

When Emperor Franz Josef solemnly inaugurated Vienna's Ringstrasse in 1865, this huge urban development project was far from complete, and many areas of the glacis in front of the former city fortifications were still undeveloped. Rudolf von Alt, the tireless city chronicler, followed with interest the progress of the construction phases, but above all tried to capture the last glimpses of the vanishing Baroque Vienna. In 1869 he found the glacis around the former Schottentor, which reached to the present Berggasse in the 9th district, still in its original condition. In the distance, on the left edge of the picture, the Rossauer barracks, completed in the same year, with their typical towers and the red color of the bricks, show the progress of modern city expansion, and the formerly powerful bastion around the Schottentor is already in ruins. All this interested the painter but only marginally, rather he wants to capture the atmosphere of the wide, free space that had served the Viennese for so long as a recreational and economic space. He describes a normal everyday life in which the military performs drill exercises, walkers like busy people cross the wide field and dealers spread their goods. In the foreground young trees decorate the way as future providers of shade, which should receive in a short time a completely different face. Characteristic of the watercolors of the 1860s is the unbelievable sovereignty with which Alt leads the brush and lets the paint run lightly and in a generous gesture over the sheet. The meticulous drawing is completely indifferent to him, because it prevents the capture of the moment, the capture of the essence, the mood. Unaffected by the French movements, Rudolf von Alt simultaneously masters the art of capturing an impression as a timeless, living and valid moment.