Frank Richard Unterberger

Franz Richard Unterberger , born August 15, 1837 in Innsbruck and died May 25, 1902 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, is a Tyrolean landscape painter of the xix th century .

Franz Richard Unterberger is baptized on September 6, 1837. He is the eldest son of an art dealer based in Innsbruck. After finishing primary school, he attended the Munich Commercial Academy, but soon moved on to the Academy of Fine Arts, where he was a student of Professors Clemens von Zimmerman and Julius Lange. In 1858, he followed his mentor, Professor Lange, then private teacher of the Archduchess Charlotte of Belgium, to Milan. However, the events of the war of 1859 soon forced him to return to Munich.

After a short stay in the Bavarian metropolis, he goes to Düsseldorf , where the landscapers of Andreas and Oswald Achenbach orient his talent towards the Academy of Fine Arts in new directions. At this time, Unterberger adopts the middle name Richard. On the suggestion of his teachers, he went to Norway in 1860, where many works were created. His works are exhibited in Innsbruck, Vienna and Düsseldorf and are always well received by art critics. Encouraged by this success, the artist also travels to Denmark and the English and Scottish coasts .

Unterberger also finds motifs that inspire him in his native country. During a stay in the Tyrol in 1862, Part bei Innsbruck mit der sonnig beleuchteten Waldrastspitze im Hintergrund is bought by Archduke Charles-Louis of Austria .

In 1864, Unterberger left the academy of Düsseldorf and moved to Brussels as an independent painter, which he chose as a permanent residence. From there, he traveled to the south of France and - in the late sixties - to southern Italy . The first Italian painting, Part bei Neapel , was exhibited in 1868 at the Wiener Kunstverein. At the 1873 World Fair in Vienna, he presented the painting Sorrento , Gulf of Naples . The sunny coastal landscapes of the Adriatic Sea , but also Venice with its magnificent buildings, picturesque corners and the hustle and bustle of people are fast becoming the center of Unterberger's artistic work. Like almost no other artist, he can animate his images figuratively without diverting attention from the main motif.

Unterberger has a special interest in the State Museum of Tyrol, which owns several of his works, including the Amalfi painting and the Gulf of Salerno.

While in 1870 a game was publicly exhibited on the island of Capri, Unterberger created two images of Lake Achensee . At the Tyrolean National Exhibition of 1893, he is represented by the paintings Motiv aus Dänemark , Posilippo Golf von Neapel and Amalfi, Golf von Salerno . Later, he no longer chooses Tyrolean landscapes as subjects; only a small picture of the Dolomites , Cimon della Pala is known as such.

Unterberger is lucky enough to sell most of his paintings away from exhibitions. At international exhibitions in Munich, his paintings are usually exhibited in the Belgian section. More often than in Munich, he is represented at exhibitions in Brussels, Paris and London , where he is much better known and his name more popular than in Austria. He gets several medals. In 1874, Emperor Franz Joseph I st of Austria awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Order of Francis Joseph .

His appearance is elegant and his manners impeccable, and he undoubtedly benefited from the experience and knowledge gained during his travels. He remains single despite, or precisely because of this good manners. When he does not travel, he lives in Brussels. From May to July, he regularly stays in Neuilly, in the suburbs of Paris, where he also runs a workshop. He died of a stroke on May 25, 1902. His body was transferred to Innsbruck and buried in the family grave.

In 1987, the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum commemorates the life and work of this important artist Tyrolean with a retrospective on the occasion of his 150 th birthday.