At the beginning of the 19th century, Joseph Rebell captured ports on the Gulf of Naples, the Amalfi Coast and the Mediterranean vegetation of the island of Ischia with his paintbrush. The landscape painter, who will have his first monographic exhibition in the Lower Belvedere in Vienna from tomorrow, Wednesday, is distinguished by his special handling of light. Under the title “In the Light of the South” the Italian scenes kissed by the sun can be seen until November 13th.
The painter, who was born in Vienna in 1787 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, moved to Italy in 1810, where he captured the area around Lake Como and Lake Maggiore, among other places. He became famous with views of the Gulf of Naples, Ischia, Capri and Amalfi, so that the Austrian Emperor Franz I also took notice of him and commissioned him. The emperor seemed convinced, after all he gave him the management of the imperial picture gallery in the Upper Belvedere in 1824.
Director General Stella Rollig spoke of a “masterful representation of light” at a press conference on Tuesday. Curator Sabine Grabner described the lighting conditions as if one were standing under a clear sky, and one can almost feel the warm Italian afternoon sun on one’s face when looking at it. Rebel really felt them: he painted oil sketches outdoors, and he also captured people – mostly dock workers and fishermen – on the spot with pen and brush.
The artist also helped to design the idealized landscapes. The coast of Capri appears darker and deserted in an oil sketch. The same scenery looks different when her rebel adds fishermen and their boats, but above all a low sun breaking on the waves.
But not only idyllic landscapes found their way onto Rebell’s canvas. In a part in the middle of the exhibition that Grabner calls the “catastrophe room”, boats in distress, stormy seas and volcanic eruptions adorn the blue-painted Belvedere walls. The curator explained that the painter wanted to show how exposed the people on the coast are to these forces of nature. But even when a sea storm is raging in the foreground and the erupting Vesuvius fills the sky with clouds of smoke in the background, the light reflected on the sea still makes the scenes look picturesque.
“In the light of the south” is of course also a bit about the Belvedere, since Joseph Rebell was also the director of the imperial picture gallery in the building. He held the post for only four years – from 1824 to 1828 – not because of personal or professional misconduct, mind you, but because of his death from tuberculosis, which overtook him on a trip to Dresden at the age of only 41.
In this short time, Rebell has turned the Belvedere into a “modern museum,” said Rollig. For example, he had hot-air heating installed to improve the climatic conditions, he also had paintings restored and artists’ names and biographical dates attached to the picture frames. “The house as it stands is Rebell’s work,” Grabner said.
(SERVICE – “Joseph Rebell. In the Light of the South” from June 15 to November 13 in the Lower Belvedere, Rennweg 6, Vienna 3. Open from Monday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., www.belvedere.at)
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