At the Monastery Fountain

Friedrich Gauermann’s wildlife and landscape paintings led the way in nature studies, which he undertook during his extensive travels through the Austrian and Bavarian Alps. According to his biographers, it was in 1827 when he was first in the area of Hallein and there encountered “a colorful abundance of picturesque mountain garb/costumes.” He went on to specialize in the representation of country folk and the depiction of the activities which defined them. A compositionally sophisticated example of this is the painting at hand, which shows cows, sheep, and horses brought to a fountain to drink. The fountain stands before the façade of an idyllic, medieval church, beyond which lies an aestival wooded landscape. Gauermann referred to two known topographical designs for this depiction. The church door quotes the west portal of the Franciscan church in Salzburg, and the fountain was modeled after the one which lies at the town center of Zell am See.