That’s the wonder of Northern Europe, no matter which city you are in, one is sure to stumble on a museum showing a collection of famous art treasures.

I was visiting Colleen R who is a professional guide in the Georg Schafer Museum in Schweinfurt in Germany. As a special treat she gave me a private tour of the exclusive acquarelles of Austrian artist Rudolf von Alt (1812–1905).

The museum was having an exhibition of about 60 acquarelles and many groups of art enthusiasts were coming in to Schweinfurt, from across the country, especially to view them.

Acquarelles are paintings done with transparent water colours and von Alt was considered the master of water colour during the second-half of the 19th century. If in your mind you imagine these are just random splashes of water colour, take a look at his ‘Canale Grande in Venice’, 1864.

If you have been to Venice, you will instantly see the brilliance of von Alt. The intricate brush work will leave you riveted with its almost photographic quality.

As the story goes von Alt began by helping his father Joseph Alt from the time, he was just eight years old. In fact there is a lithograph, which was showcased, of the father and son sitting in the mountains of Austria painting reality and not a fantasy. They would sketch the required scene sitting amidst the wilds of nature and then come home to finish the piece.

Apparently, these artworks were commissioned by Emperor Ferdinand 1 of the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy, which were to be viewed in a so-called ‘Guckkasten’ wooden box with a lens. ‘Guck’ in German means look and ‘kasten’ is a box.

The father and son undertook these trips to the Austrian Alps, Italy and other neighbouring countries as ordered by the king.They travelled by coach and on foot and painted landscapes and townscapes which caught their attention.They painted a total of 107 Guckkasten pictures, of which six were presented in the exhibition.

In all 277 pictures, including those from other artists are still in existence. “These pictures needed an eye for depth so that their beauty could be seen best through the Guckkasten,” explained Colleen.

On 15th June 1835, father and son arrived in Rome, commissioned by the emperor to paint pictures in Italy. The very next day they focused their attention on San Giovanni in Laterano, the Basilika of the Bishop of Rome, Mother of all churches on earth.

While the father concentrated on picturing this church from outside, the son chose to depict the interior of a corridor with the Stations of the Cross leading to the church. “Here the young 22-year-old son, von Alt brought to life a dynamic composition with a diagonal view, and brought in light and life to the picture,” explained Colleen.

Looking at his beautiful reproduction of St Stephens Cathedral in Vienna ‘Der Stephansdom’ in Wein, painted in 1882, one could see the so called ‘frog’ perspective used by von Alt.

“Imagine yourself being a frog crouching at the base of the cathedral’s singular spire, the so- called ‘Steffl’ and looking up at it,” explained Colleen. “If you look at the painting you can see that the spire is not straight and that makes him, this next-to-a-genius artist so human after all with faults just like any of us.”

‘Torquato Tassos Vaterhaus in Sorrent bei Neapel’ (1836) caught my eye with the dramatic play of colour of the translucent aquamarine sea and the white sailboat against the sheer cliffs.This painting is pure realism and apparently if one is to go to Sorrent near Naples today one can see the scene exactly as he has painted it.

According to Colleen, von Alt visited Italy 30 years later. While working in Palermo for three months, he suddenly had to flee to Naples as the first cases of cholera came up. In quarantine he got cholera but survived and recovered! So forced to live in Naples for longer than planned he produced over 30 acquarelles, which he sent to Vienna and they never reached and were never found.

Von Alt lived to be 92 years and painted till his death. As he aged the lines and brushwork of his art grew more blurred, having moved on from Realism to Impressionism and so took on a charm quite different from his earlier works. What is interesting is von Alt never had an atelier of his own to work  in like regular artists do.

As he aged and wasn’t able to travel anymore, he just sat in the family room, and painted looking out of his window. In fact ‘Blick in die Alservorstadt’ painted in 1872 is a fine example of his standpoint at one of his windows. It is a special painting for two reasons according to Colleen.

 “It is unconventional in the compactness of its composition and with a melting of a portrait and his fine detail for architecture all in one. There is the portrait in half profile of his youngest daughter Louisa.

She leads the eye to view the work taking place outside the window. This painting was done shortly before or after his 60th birthday and von Alt seems to focus on the roof opposite and on the tile layers at work on the roof. A sort of foraging for his roots.”

Rudolf Alt was bestowed at the age of 60 the title of ‘von’ by the Emperor as a commendation to his art. But he didn’t use it until 25 years later, strange to say at the age of 85, when he began to sign his works with ‘R.v.Alt’.