(Untermieger 1824–1871 St. Ruprecht near Klagenfurt)
The Grossglockner, oil on canvas, 23.5 x 29 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Carinthia

Compare:
Arnulf Rohsmann, Markus Pernhart, Die Aneignung von Landschaften und Geschichte, Heyn, Klagenfurt 1992, ill. p. 321.

In 1800, an expedition led by Prince Salm-Reifferscheidt-Krautheim made the first ascent of the 3798 m high Großglockner, which has been the highest mountain in Austria since 1918 and has always been one of the most impressive mountain peaks in the Alps. In the course of the 19th century, a lively tourism industry developed around the Glockner parallel to the increasingly popular alpinism, which spread the popularity of the majestic mountain and increased the demand for its painted image.

The Carinthian painter Markus Pernhart was possibly the first who not only captured the Großglockner from a safe distance from the village of Heiligenblut, but also climbed it ten times between 1857 and 1859 and was thus able to paint authentic pictures of the summit and its conquest from his own experiences. The description of a small group of mountaineers mastering the last challenging ascent from the Kleinglockner over the Glocknerscharte, which is only half a meter wide, to the summit is particularly dramatic.
Pernhart painted the motif in different sizes, in different lighting situations and with differently arranged staffage, so that each conveys its own impression and transforms the ascent of the Grossglockner into a unique experience. The present painting not only inspires with the penetrating blue of the sky and the finely nuanced tones of the mountains, but also vividly conveys the vanishing greatness of the successful mountaineers on the summit in relation to the grandeur of nature.