Tina Blau (1845–1916)
Figures Walking in Wengen, 1899
Oil on canvas
Canvas: 22 × 28 in.
Frame: 25 ½ × 31 ½ in.
Signed, inscribed “Wengen,” and dated lower right.
Painted during her travels to Switzerland, this work captures the Alpine village of Wengen, nestled beneath the snow-covered peaks of the Bernese Oberland. Figures stroll along a mountain path, their pink parasol adding a lively accent against the rustic barns and immense backdrop of glacial summits. The scene combines Blau’s careful observation of nature with her gift for atmospheric light, offering both grandeur and intimacy in a single composition.
One of the foremost Austrian landscape painters of the nineteenth century, Tina Blau trained with August Schaeffer and Wilhelm Lindenschmit and was celebrated for her plein-air approach, luminous color, and innovative depictions of nature. Though she faced obstacles as a woman artist, Blau became a central figure in Vienna’s art circles and later a professor at the Vienna Kunstschule für Frauen und Mädchen, inspiring a generation of young women painters.
Provenance: Estate of Taussig, Riverside Drive, Manhattan.
