Τοπίο με καλύβες

000070 Joseph Selleny, Landscape with Cottages, n.d., oil on cardboard, 41 × 49 cm

Joseph Seleni studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and spent long periods in Italy around 1854-55; he was one of the notable academic painters active in Vienna around the middle of the 19th century. His career was interrupted by health problems and his untimely death. He primarily focused on landscape painting, a subject to which he devoted the major part of his work. The painting of the collection was probably painted at an early stage of his career. It depicts a Central European landscape (as one can tell by the form of the houses and the clothing of the young woman in the centre of the composition. Probably, we see a village street. Low hills can be seen in the background, while the landscape is dominated by a heavy, overcast sky. Inspired by the Dutch Baroque landscape painting and not denying his romantic influences, Selleny gives a rather realistic picture of the countryside, rejecting the picturesque and the idealization of nature.