Zoom
1878 Temesvar – 1937 Klosterneuburg
- Title
- „Werfenstein Castle near Grein“
- Time
- 1916
- signed
- and dated lower right "M. Kahrer 1916", verso signed, dated and titled "Donauenge bei Struden"
- Technique
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 29 ⅓ × 31 ½ in
illustrated in: C. Simacek/J. Scharl: Max Kahrer. Leben und Werk, Klosterneuburg 1999, p. 95.
With subtly impasto brushstrokes and a characteristic palette, Max Kahrer created in the present work from 1916 a sun-drenched Danube landscape featuring Werfenstein Castle. The narrow riverside road skillfully draws the viewer’s eye into the depth of the composition. The atmospheric painting is more than a mere topographical view. Kahrer consistently infused his contemporary emotional state into his unpopulated landscapes. He himself defined great art as “a unique epic of inner experience.”
Werfenstein Castle rises above the village of Struden in the Strudengau, a wild romantic stretch of the Danube known, prior to river regulation, for its dangerous rapids. In the Middle Ages, a chain was stretched across the river between the castle and the fortress opposite on Wörth Island to collect river tolls. When the toll station was later moved upstream, Werfenstein Castle lost much of its strategic importance, though it continued to be used as a residence by its successive owners.
Max Kahrer initially studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and continued his training in Munich in 1913/14. In 1903, he moved to Klosterneuburg, where he played a central role in the local artistic scene alongside Egon Schiele. Egon Schiele created several portraits of his mentor and friend Max Kahrer, and together they participated in a group exhibition in 1908 in the Marble Hall of Klosterneuburg Abbey. Today, Kahrer’s works are held in the collections of the Belvedere Vienna, and the Wien Museum.