Traunsee Landscape with Orth Castle

Feid combines the romantic view of an overgrown fairytale wood with the realistic rendering of the Traunsee, the Traunstein mountain and the moated Orth Castle, rebuilt after a fire in 1626. The painting is precisely elaborated, with soft light distribution and subtle colouration.
Only a closer look reveals a certain dramatic quality: the foremost tree seems about to slip with its clod and plunge down the slope, at the bottom of which cows are lying.
Feid’s œuvre shows the influence of his Academy teacher Joseph Mössmer who, like his predecessors, encouraged studies directly from nature. Mössmer’s landscapes go beyond late baroque style, translating nature into poetic, idealised Biedermeier landscapes. He also kindled his students’ interest in the topographic rendering of Austrian regions.

Habersatter Thomas: Josef Michael Feid, Traunsee Landscape with Orth Castle. 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. 136, illus. S. 137