Landscape with a rainbow

Károly Markó the Elder achieved his artistic success in Austria and Italy. Through the Hungarian artists he influenced, as well as through the Hungarian collectors who purchased his works, his art became widely known in his homeland. From 1822 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He later moved with his family to Eisenstadt/Kismarton. After 1831 he spent increasingly long periods in Italy, where he eventually settled, living in Rome, Pisa and Florence. Károly Markó the Elder is regarded as an outstanding representative of late Neoclassical and Romantic landscape painting. Although his meticulously detailed, idyllic landscapes include figures from mythological and biblical scenes, as well as members of the Italian rural population, the central focus of his painting remains the classically balanced depiction of nature. His ideal landscapes, undoubtedly inspired by Claude Lorrain, incorporate harmonious vegetation, atmospheric effects of sky and light, and elements of ancient architecture alongside staffage-like scenes. Each motif is shown from its most beautiful and ideal aspect. In addition to paintings, Cardinal János Simor also acquired Markó Károly’s collections of sketches for the Christian Museum. (Ildikó Kontsek, 2015)

Provenance

Simor collection

Exhibitions

• 2015 Meisterwerke Diözesanmuseum, St. Pölten
• 2011 Markó Károly és köre, Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest

Bibliography

• https://www.procollect.hu/idosebb-marko-karoly-eletmu-adatbazisa/
• Bellák Gábor, Hessky Orsolya, Dragon Zoltán (szerk.): Markó Károly és köre - Mítosztól a képig, kiáll. kat. Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest, 2011, 44-45, 135.
• Wolfgang Huber (szerk.): Meisterwerke aus dem Keresztény Múzeum; kiáll.kat; Sankt Pölten 2015, 165 (Kontsek Ildikó);
• Cséfalvay Pál: Simor János és a kortárs képzőművészet. Kiáll. kat. [Keresztény Múzeum, 2000. okt. 12 - 2001. ápr. 30.], Szerk. Kontsek Ildikó, Esztergom: Keresztény Múzeum, 2001, kat. 85.;
• Magyarország műemléki topográfiája I. Esztergom 1. Esztergom műemlékei.összeállította: Genthon István, Budapest, 1948., 54.