Portrait of a young man

Romako is among the most impressive and contradictory artists in 19th century Austrian painting. This work, dated 1878 and signed A. Romako Paris, was probably painted during one of the periods he spent in the French metropolis.
The portrait of a dandyish man-about-town shows Romako’s knowledge of French avant-garde – above all the painting of Edouard Manet (1832– 1883).
Romako’s painting is rich in narrative elements and objects related as attributes to the person depicted, and serving as more or less concealed allusions.
A young man in a cutaway coat is busy lighting a cigarette. His hands and face with the finely-drawn eyebrows and groomed moustache are illuminated by the match-flame. His fashionable haircut, his red tie with a pin, and cufflinks on a spotless white shirt complete his elegant appearance.Gloves, roughly sketched, lie draped over the brim of his top hat. Books, candle and letter, arranged as in a still life, are attributes of the protagonist.
The combination of graphically accentuated, detailed realism – blurred in places, such as in the diffuse chiaroscuro background modulations – is typical of Romako’s style, capturing, in this blend of genre scene and portrait, the type of the modern man-about-town, the “flâneur”.

OEHRING Erika: Romako Anton, Portrait of a young man, in: DUCKE Astrid, HABERSATTER Thomas, OEHRING Erika: Masterworks. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2015, p. 156