Franz Richard Unterberger

Austrian Romanticist Franz Richard Unterberger was born in Innsbruck in August 1838 and began his artistic studies in 1853 at the Munich Academy. He soon moved to continue his training at the Weimar Academy under Albert Zimmermann, and by 1859, he had enrolled at the Düsseldorf Academy, where he was taught by the famed landscape artist Andreas Achenbach. At the end of his training, he traveled extensively, visiting and painting in Norway and Denmark between 1860 and 1874, with stops along the coast of England and Scotland, and finally settling in Brussels in 1864. During this period, he usually spent summers just outside of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and from there he visited the scenic locales in Italy that would inspire some of his best artworks. The concentration Unterberger placed upon the building facades and the inhabitants' clothing is photographic in execution and detail. He also found great success in Vienna, where he exhibited and received several medals, including the Order of Francis Joseph. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1902.

Unterberger paintings are highly romantic with a characteristic delicacy of coloring and superb ability to capture atmosphere of a famous location. His studies of Venice and the Neapolitan coast are now considered his most desirable paintings. He exhibited in a number of major Academies in Vienna, Paris and London, and his paintings can be seen in several of Europe's most prestigious museums.