The Grossglockner Mountain with the Pasterze Glacier

Ender, who taught landscape painting at the Vienna Academy from 1837 to 1848, was a keen traveller throughout his artistic career. His legendary expedition to Brazil in 1817/18, under the auspices of State Chancellor Metternich and Archduke Johann, set him off on the road to success.
Later, on his annual hikes through the Alps and a journey to the Orient with the Archduke in 1837, Ender created a unique collection of watercolours. His paintings of the upper and lower Pasterze glacier with the Johannisberg, dated around 1830, represent the first highlight in the “pictorial record of the entire country of Austria”, an ambitious project of the Archduke.
The cool colours of the ice, with a wealth of nuance, contrast effectively with the dark earth tones of the foreground. Minuscule staffage figures and two circling birds of prey demonstrate the grandeur of the natural spectacle. The artist worked with picture sequences, creating several sketches of this panorama from varying vantage points. The painting, originally owned by Katharina Schratt, is based on a watercolour from the Residenzgalerie collection (inv. no. 96).
The rendering is also an important testimony to the size of the glacier at that time, providing evidence that the surface area of what was once the longest glacier (11.4 km) of the eastern Alps reached nearly as far as today’s Franz-Josefs-Höhe observation point.

OEHRING Erika: Ender Thomas, The Großglockner mountain with the Pasterze glacier, in: DUCKE Astrid, HABERSATTER Thomas, OEHRING Erika: Masterworks. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2015, p. 144