(Vienna 1814-1880)
A view of Stupinigi castle near Turin, a scene with an elephant in a circus in the foreground, titled "Schloss Stupinigi in Piemont" on the reverse, the Piazza Vittorio Veneto in Turin and the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I, staffage and a boat, 2 panels of a door in the Lusthaus on Mariannen island at Laxenburg castle, both signed Karl and K. Geyling, reverse glass painting painting behind glass in watercolour and gouache, surrounded ba a decorative border, the panels each 46 x 45 cm, overall dimensions each 60 x 60 cm, the glass panels leaded, wooden framing,(2) (Hu)

Provenance:
Private property, Austria.

Two panels of an Imperial Lusthaus
In 1840-41 Emperor Ferdinand I. (1793-1875) had the Mariannen-Temple erected on an island of the same name in Laxenburg for his spouse Maria Anna (1803- 1884), a Savoyan princess from Piemont/Sardinia. The young Viennese landscape painter Carl Geyling (1814-1880) received the commission for the decoration. In summer 1840 he had to execute city views on glass for the doors and the windows. According to Rudolf von Eitelberger the first six pictures (including St. Stephen’s, Charles’s church, Hoher Markt and Spinnerin am Kreuz) on the windows of the entrance door were executed in a „kind of an encaustic varnish“. Subsequently Geyling created about 22 panels for the „Mariannen-Temple“ – the later ones of them were presumably executed with „genuine“ glass paints which he produced in his workshop that he founded in 1841.

After the Empress’s death the art works were removed from the temple and severe damages were inflicted on the building and the windows. Only two panels could be salvaged from the debris and have remained in the Franzensburg in Laxenburg until today. Their dimensions are 60 x 60cm; they were executed in glass technique and signed by Geyling. One of them shows a harbour scene in Turin, the residential town and home country of Empress Maria Anna; the other one shows a scene in a circus nearby the Savoyan hunting lodge Stupinigi. Engravings may have been the model images. Their style recalls coloured drawings in black ink.

The two present works are closely related to the Laxenburg panes. The depictions are almost identical and the dimensions are roughly similar. They are signed "K. Geyling" and "Karl Geyling". The difference may lie in the technique: While the two panes being preserved in Laxenburg are clearly related to glass painting, the two present ones may have been executed in cold painting on glass. The two present works belong to the earliest preserved products of the artist and mark the beginning of the activities of his workshop which became one of the most important workshops for glass painting in Central and Eastern Europe. The workshop existed until 2016. The usage of the panels in the Laxenburg Lusthaus is not documented according to today’s state of research.

We are grateful to Dr. Alicia Waldstein-Wartenberg-Spengler, Vienna, for the scientific support when we catalogued this lot.