(Vienna 1847–1922)
The Courtyard of Petersberg Castle in Friesach in Carinthia, signed, dated Robert Russ 1879, oil on canvas, 114 x 174 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection Vienna.

Exhibited:
1879, annual exhibition, Künstlerhaus Vienna;
1879, Glaspalast Munich.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Andrea Winkelbauer, Marianne Hussl-Hörmann, Robert Russ. Monographie mit Verzeichnis der Gemälde, Vienna 2016, p. 129, CR no. I.116.

Catalogued in:
Friedrich von Boetticher, Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts, Hofheim am Taunus 1979, vol. II, 1, p. 497, no. 29.

On a rocky ridge above Friesach in Carinthia‘s Mednitz Valley stretches the mighty complex of Petersberg Castle. Once owned by the Archbishop of Salzburg, the castle and the town, which was elevated to the status of a city in 1215, played an important role throughout the Middle Ages and into the 16th century on one of the most important trade routes to Italy. After that, it experienced a political and economic decline, and after a fire at the end of the 17th century, the castle was completely abandoned to decay.

It was the artists who rediscovered the artistic value of the castle around 1850. Petersberg became a „must-see“ for Austrian landscape painters. In 1874, Robert Russ, too, sought out this special place with its mysterious aura of transience and the artistic challenge it presented. A few years earlier, in 1871, he had already celebrated great success with a comparable motif in a historical setting, „ Fürstenburg Courtyard in Burgeis“ at the Vienna Künstlerhaus and in Munich. It was therefore obvious that he would also choose the lower castle courtyard in Friesach as the motif for a special painting, which he would only execute later in his studio. Russ confidently chose a large format for this difficult architectural ensemble in order convincingly to suggest an immediate experience to the viewer. In a sharp diagonal, he leads the viewer‘s gaze along the façade of the former ‘Burghauptmannschaft’ with its rhythmic rows of arcades into the depths of the picture, accompanied by the transition from light to dark tone. It appears to be mid-morning and the arcades are in shadow, while the early sunlight falls on the ruins of the other building tracts. In fact, light is rarely authentic in Russ‘ work. He uses it as a formative element to enchant the atmosphere of a place. A dramatic interplay of deep shadows and bright pictoral surfaces, quite bold on the part of the painter, reinforces the grand illusion of space, atmosphere, liveliness. While the children in the middle of the courtyard are busy husking the corncobs, the viewer finds countless details in the picture, such as the deposited flowerpot on the parapet, the inscriptions above the door frame or the wall structure under the sloping plaster.

The Petersberg castle courtyard thus becomes a place for contemplation, historical reflection and artistic enjoyment over time. „The viewer should hold his breath to give duration to the moment.“ (Winkelbauer)