Oil painting “Ein Regentag” Rudolf Quittner ca.1904

Born in 1872, Impressionist Rudolf Quittner was an Austrian landscape and genre painter who was a virtuoso at capturing the effects of air and light on canvas. He first studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and later became a student at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he focused intensively on landscape painting. Quittner was a student of Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley and was not only inspired by Claude Monet, but also promoted by him. He traveled throughout almost all of Europe, the Orient, and North America for study purposes and, from 1901 onwards, lived in Paris during the summer and spent the winters in Vienna.

Rudolf Quittner exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Vienna Künstlerhaus, and the most important art fairs of his time in Paris, Berlin, Munich, Düsseldorf, and Dresden. His paintings were well received by art critics and journalists of his time, and his works are now exhibited in museums such as the Belvedere and the Vienna Museum.

Rudolf Quittner’s “Rainy Day” shows a rain-soaked landscape with a lone woman under an umbrella on a shiny country road. Bare trees and street lamps line the path, which passes simple huts and gardens. In the background, the striking silhouette of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre in Paris can be seen, mysteriously shrouded in rain and fog. The exciting mood of the sky, the reflections in the puddles, and the deserted scenery create a quiet, melancholic, but also hopeful atmosphere.