Austrian Riviera

Opatija, Trieste, Lovran, Dubrovnik … destinations of desire. In the 19th century, Austrian painters such as Leontine von Littrow, Alfred Zoff and Menci Clement Crnčić discovered the coastal landscape of the former Imperial crown lands, the Austrian Riviera, as a subject for their work. Their atmospheric paintings attract wide interest to this day.

Dalmatia, Istria, Italy: in the late 19th century, these destinations awakened a wanderlust both in the higher echelons of society and amongst the artists of the Habsburg monarchy. Whether glamorous seaside resorts or lonely landscapes and coastlines, it was en vogue for artists from the crown lands influenced by the style of the Barbizon School to capture these locations in their en plein air paintings. Their legacy is still plain to see in the seaside resorts of the Adriatic coast where works by artists such as Leontine von Littrow, Anton Perko, Stefanie Glax, Alfred Zoff or Ettore Roesler Franz can be found in public places and private collections from Opatija, Trieste, Rijeka, Lovran to Dubrovnik. An exhibition at the Wien Museum in 2013 entitled The Austrian Riviera. Vienna Discovers the Seaside was ground-breaking for coastal paintings from the end of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and awoke an interest in the field which has been growing ever since.

As the head of Dorotheum’s 19th Century Paintings department, Dimitra Reimüller explains, there is unbroken demand for this genre of painting in Austria and prices are consistently on the rise because the paintings rarely come to the market, and interest in the genre has been growing over the past decade or so. To take one example, the work of Leontine von Littrow (who was a friend of the painter Olga Wisinger-Florian), especially her late impressionist work, has become increasingly popular with collectors, particularly since the publication of a monograph in 2017 and an exhibition in Rijeka. Dorotheum holds the record sale price for a work by the artist with her painting Fishing Boats in the Harbour making 89,600 euros last year. The auction on 2 May 2023 includes two further examples of her work in oil paint entitled Coastal Scene at Lovrana and Breaking Waves, which provide new insights into the artist’s fascinating late work.

The sale also includes a work by the painter Menci Clement Crnčić who can be described as the male counterpart to von Littrow. Born in Bruck an der Mur in Austria in 1885, he went on to become influential in the development of the Croatian art scene. The upcoming sale includes a characteristic view of the Croatian coast rendered in the bright colourful style typical of the artist’s work. A further example of the growing interest in the 19th century Austrian seascape painters is the monumental sea view by Alfred Zoff which was sold at Dorotheum for 115,200 euros last year, following the publication of a monograph published in 2021 which had contributed to an increased interest in the Graz painter’s work.

There is still a lot to discover about this area of collecting and much to interest those fascinated by the atmosphere of the sea and coastal resorts as rendered by artists exploring the Adriatic coast at the romantic, emotion-laden close of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

Information: Dimitra Reimüller, Specialist for 19th Century Paintings

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