Rhineland

Franz Richard Unterberger was born into an artistic family in Austria and received his artistic training in Germany at the Munich Academy with Albert Zimmerman and Julius Lange, whom he followed to Milan for further instruction. Seminal to his education was his early tutelage under the Aachenbach brothers, with whom he studied landscape at the famed Düsseldorf Academy, the preeminent school of landscape painting during the 19th century. But it was Unterberger's travels abroad which were to ultimately develop his unique artistic personality as well as define the direction of his artistic pursuits. While he traveled and exhibited extensively in Europe, Unterberger spent much of his time in Southern Italy and Sicily, painting the local inhabitants as well as the captivating and romantic landscape in which they dwelt. Even in his depictions of landscapes in his homeland, such as the present painting, Unterberger imbues the scene with the warm light of more southern climes.