(Krems 1739 - 1823 Vienna), Romantic landscape with a shepherd and his flock near a lake, signed at lower left Wutky; Romantic river landscape with a mule driver and a shepherd and his flock, signed at lower right Wutky, pendants, oil on cardboard on panel, 13.5 x 34 cm, framed

The Krems-born painter studied under Martin van Meytens at the Vienna Academy from 1759 onwards and became a member of the Academy in 1770. Initially being a history painter, he eventually worked exclusively as a landscapist. He lived in Rome between 1776 and 1801 and frequently travelled to Naples. In 1805 he returned to Italy once again. Wutky acquired fame among his contemporaries during his extensive stays in Naples. With Mount Vesuvius being particularly active in those days, Wutky seized every opportunity of painting impressive pictures of its eruptions and lava flows. Accompanied by the English natural scientist William Hamilton, he even risked to closely approach the crater during their excursions together. The studies he made in situ were long considered the most precise scientific illustrations of volcanism. When he later taught at the Vienna Academy, Wutky, meanwhile known as a painter of striking Italian panoramas and nocturnal pieces, became a rival of Philipp Hackert. His painting style leads over from Baroque drama to an idealized landscape approach. He died in Vienna in 1823. The two present works, both of which are brilliantly executed, most certainly date from the artist’s early Viennese period. Paintings by Wutky are preserved at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and in the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, as well as in Prague, the Casino Borghese in Rome, and other major public and private collections in Europe.