Portrait of a Young Man

Romako is among the most impressive and contradictory personalities in 19th-century Austrian painting. Unappreciated by contemporary critics and long forgotten after his death, this painter and aquarellist is now considered a predecessor of Austrian Modernism.

A young man in a cutaway coat is busy lighting a cigarette. His hands and face, with finely-drawn eyebrows and groomed moustache, are illuminated by the match-flame. His red tie, tie-pin and cufflinks complete his elegant appearance. Gloves, roughly sketched, lie draped over the brim of his top hat. Books, candle and letter, arranged as in a still life, are attributes of the protagonist. The work, signed "A. Romako Paris", is undated, but was probably painted at the beginning of the 1880s. The graphically accentuated, detailed realism, blurred in places, is typical of Romako's style, capturing, in this blend of genre scene and portrait, the type of the modern man-about-town.