Franz Richard Unterberger

The Austrian painter Franz Richard Unterberger belongs to the greats of his art. For his impressive nature painting he was and is known all over the world, far beyond the borders of his Tyrolean home Innsbruck. Born in 1837 as the son of an art dealer in the idyllic mountain landscape of the Alps, he came into contact with his two life themes, art and nature, at an early age. Unterberger's family was not poor, but neither was it overly wealthy. This led the young Franz, after completing his schooling, to first decide to attend a commercial academy. But he soon gave up the commercial school and enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich - one of the most prestigious art academies in Germany, even and already in the 19th century, when Unterberger studied there. Landscape and nature painting had always been the central focus of his artistic work, and his mentors recognized early on that the painter had a very special talent. On the advice of his professors, he set out on journeys to get to know the landscapes of Europe, both those of the north and those of the south. His first long trip took Unterberger to Norway, where, impressed by the Nordic nature, he painted numerous works of art that are still among his most important today. Among them, "On the Hardanger Fjord in Norway" and "Norwegian Wedding Party".