Landscape near Zell am See

A lazy day on a high Alpine meadow with a view of a snow-covered peak – such is the atmosphere of this painting. It is the cliché of rural tranquillity and romantic idyll, with which Mahlknecht catered to the desire of his contemporaries, making him greatly in demand with the Viennese middle-classes as landscape and animal painter. Basically, in the late 19th century he was merely continuing the popular Biedermeier subject of rustic scenes with animals, which in turn dated back to 17th-century Dutch painting.
Beasts and herdswoman are taking a rest, waiting for someone who is just appearing behind the brow of the hill in the middle ground. Long shadows betoken the approach of evening. The start of the rock formation on the right is reminiscent of paintings by the artist’s teachers Steinfeld and Hansch. The snow-covered peak below the towering clouds can be identified as the Kitzsteinhorn.

Habersatter Thomas: Edmund Mahlknecht, Landscape near Zell am See. In: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hg./Ed.): Stadt - Land - Berg. Salzburg und seine Umgebung. Town - Landscape - Mountain. Salzburg and surroundings. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2022, p. 118, illus. p. 119