(Innsbruck 1838–1902 Neuilly-sur-Seine)
Summer on the Amalfi Coast, signed F. R. Unterberger, verso titled and inscribed in the artist’s own hand “ ... F. R. Unterberger, Bruxelles”,
oil on panel, 46 x 33.5 cm, framed

A certificate issued by Ao. Univ. Prof. Dr. Sybille Moser-Ernst, dated 25 August 2020, is available.

We are grateful to Ao. Univ. Prof. Dr. Sybille Moser-Ernst for confirming the authenticity on basis of the original.

Five other versions of this image (one of them also on panel, and four that are much larger on canvas) were already known to me. This painting on panel, to be auctioned here in Vienna at Dorotheum, is the smallest of all six known versions, and, aside from the largest canvas version painted around 1900 (at Christie’s in NYC in 2014 and 2016), is also the best and most accomplished. There are many reasons to regard this painting, executed on a thin, finely worked mahogany panel, as the original version of the popular Amalfi motif. First, the use of the wooden panel suggests that the work was created by Unterberger in situ, i.e. in Amalfi. Also, the type of signature suggests a dating to around 1878/79, thus making it the first example of this subject matter. The signature is not set “on the finished painting”, but is incorporated into the image as part of the composition – it can be seen following the slant of the terrace bench. It is almost as though the viewer could enter the painting, such is the skillfully conveyed immediacy of the image. Conversely, all later versions were created in the studio and are more distanced, allowing the aesthetic enjoyment of the salon to emerge.
The details of the different versions are exactly the same, even down to the smallest corners. Yet this one differs by virtue of its proportional subtleties, the liveliness of the figures, and the absolute confidence in the construction of the foreground, with its perfect perspective without stiffness - and these are qualities that inform my judgment. In the original version, the coastal light in the midday heat is rendered in an accomplished, picturesque manner.

The painting is in very good condition, tiny repairs are visible under the blue lamp, but it is undamaged by intervention.