(Atzgersdorf 1832–1889 Vienna)
Italian shepherdess with a ram (I) – watercolour variant, an old inscription A. Romako in Rome and annotations concerning the mount on the reverse, signed A. Romako Roma, watercolour on paper, 35,5 x 29,5 cm, framed, (Hu)

Compare:
Cat. raisonné Nos. 297–299, in: Cornelia Reiter, Anton Romako, Pionier und Aussenseiter der Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts, Monograph and catalogue raisonné, Belvedere 2010, p. 175: A remarkable example of Romako’s virtuous efforts in genre painting of the years around 1870.

Anton Romako inscribed at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and studied under Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller who denied the young artist any talent. In 1849 Romako went to Munich to Wilhelm Kaulbach, 1850 he returned to Vienna and attended the private academy of Carl Rahl. Together with Rahl he painted the decoration of the Hall of Fame in Vienna’s Arsenal (a former military complex of the Austrian army). After a quarrel with Rahl in 1854 Romako travelled to Italy, Spain, Venice and Rome; in 1861 he became a member of the „Genossenschaft bildender Künstler“ (union of artists) in Vienna. From the 1870s onwards he travelled to England. He returned to Vienna in 1876 but could not gain a foothold again. Financial shortcomings and heavy personal strokes of fate dimmed the evening of his life.