FRIEDRICH BECK (Vienna 1873 - 1921 Vienna), Hochschwab in Styria, 1909

FRIEDRICH BECK
(Vienna 1873 - 1921 Vienna)
Hochschwab in Styria, 1909
oil/canvas, 75,5 x 56 cm
signed F. Beck and dated 1909
Provenance: private property Vienna

ESTIMATE € 1.000 - 2.000
START € 1.000

Austrian landscape painter. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Member of the Jungbund, the Hagenbund and the Künstlerhaus. Travels through Austria and Dalmatia. Created mainly landscapes with mountains and snow, such as the Hochschwab in Upper Styria. Stylistically to be attributed to Art Nouveau and Impressionism.

Before the Viennese painter Friedrich Beck studied at the Academy of Fine Arts with Christian Griepenkerl from 1890 on, he completed a two-year apprenticeship at the Graphic Teaching and Research Institute in Vienna. Beck soon got involved in the Viennese art scene and became a member of the Jungbund, the Hagenbund and, in 1905, the Künstlerhaus. With all these associations, Beck regularly exhibited in the Austrian capital. Beck's oeuvre is characterized by depictions of alpine landscapes, which he explored during his travels through Austria and Dalmatia. The Vienna-based artist often traveled to the Lower Austrian and Styrian Alpine regions, where the work shown here was also created. The atmospheric winter picture shows the snow-covered Hochschwab in Upper Styria in the last light of the declining day, which is already coloring the snow and the entire scenery in a delicate pink. Beck leads the viewer's gaze over a group of conifers towards the mountain range. In the flatness of the depiction and the stylization of the forms, echoes of the late Art Nouveau can still be seen. Beck uses simple lines and dashes in different shades of green, thus suggesting the needles of the trees. The trees on the mountain slopes are also sketched with quick brush strokes. The formal stylization of the subjects and the detail-like centering of the picture are reminiscent of Josef Stoitzner, who also passionately devoted himself to mountain painting. Beck likes to use the interplay between light and shadow as well as light and dark color nuances. This can be observed well in the presented winter scene. The trees are depicted in dark shades of green and brown, which spread like shadows across the white snow surface, and the stone layers of the mountains, painted in shades of gray, also form an exciting contrast to the white snow.

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