(Vienna 1793–1865) Portrait of the Government Official Josef Mayerhofer (born Vienna 1770) , signed and dated Waldmüller 1833, oil on panel, 37 x 30 cm, framed, (Rei)

Illustrated and catalogued in: Rupert Feuchtmüller, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793–1865) Leben, Schriften, Werke, published by Christian Brandstätter, Vienna 1996, p.454, CR no. 362. Provenance: Private Austrian property Documentation: Josef Mayerhofer’s legitimate birth is confirmed by the Mayor of Vienna, Leopold Franz Gruber, dated 23.8.1770 and with the seal of the city. Waldmüller started his career as a painter of miniatures, a period during which he learned and perfected his skills of close observation and detailed precision. Throughout his life Waldmüller felt the compulsion to paint portraits. Without doubt, his most important works were either portraits or representations of landscapes. It was the painter’s principle intention to portray the model as realistically as possible and to faithfully reproduce every detail. (Sabine Grabner, Mehr als Biedermeier, Klassizismus, Romantik und Realismus in der Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna-Munich 2006, p. 100). Grimschitz speaks of a “theme of calm sitting”, one which is lent an exceptional mutability in Waldmüller’s paintings, above all in the psychological expression. The more reserved the play of features - avoiding exaggeration of both the expression and physical appearance - the more lively and greater the active tension Waldmüller lends his subjects. The models sit for the painter with a natural unselfconsciousness, the subjectiveness of Waldmüller’s perception so completely denied that the figures portrayed appear to have a character entirely their own and their own active autonomy. (Bruno Grimschitz, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Salzburg 1957, p.39, 42).