Die Breite Föhre nächst der Brühl bei Mödling

About this artwork

Weithin sichtbar steht die Breite Föhre auf einer Anhöhe bei Mödling. Genau diesen Baum oberhalb des Wiener Beckens gab es wirklich, und er war ein beliebtes Ausflugsziel. Ein städtisch gekleidetes Paar hat sich am Weg niedergelassen. Demütig nähert sich ihm ein Bettler oder Pilger, herablassend reicht ihm der Mann eine Münze. Sein Begleiter steht andächtig vor einem Heiligenbild, das am Stamm der Föhre hängt. Drei Frauen, zwei von ihnen mit schweren Körben am Rücken, und ein weiterer Mann ruhen...

Art Historical Context

Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld’s 1838 oil on canvas captures a real landmark the Broad Pine, a tree that once stood above the Vienna Basin nearödling and served as a popular day-trip destination for city dwellers. The wide-format composition invites viewers to share the sweeping outlook while also observing the small human drama unfolding beneath the branches. A well-dressed couple pauses to admire the view; nearby, a pilgrim or beggar receives alms, another figure prays before a devotional image nailed to the trunk, and weary local women and a man rest with heavy baskets at their feet. The painting gently contrasts two worlds—the urban visitors absorbed by romantic scenery and the rural figures too exhausted to turn toward the same vista—without overt moralizing. Schnorr von Carolsfeld uses the tall pine as both a natural monument and a quiet stage for these social encounters, its trunk anchoring the composition and its spreading crown framing the distant horizon. In the Belvedere’s collection, the work preserves a vanished Viennese landmark while recording the everyday tensions of early-nineteenth-century Austrian society.

About the Artist

Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld · 1788–1853

Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1788–1853) was a German Romantic painter, engraver, and lithographer who spent most of his life in Vienna, becoming a pivotal figure in the city's artistic circles. Born in Königsberg to artist Veit Hanns Schnorr von Carolsfeld, he trained initially under his father before moving to Vienna at age sixteen. There, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in 18...