Rock Summit

Molitor was a student of Johann Christian Brand in Vienna. He developed the subject of landscape which the painting represents in an unembellished, highly faithful fashion. The artist did not attempt to enliven the landscape with staffage and imbue it with further meaning. His landscape gives the impression of austerity, yet looks natural. In the case of this signed painting, this might have been the wish of Franz Gabeta, who commissioned the work: to prove his virtuosity of treatment in a section of landscape that “has no painterly character whatsoever and repulses the viewer's eye, rather than attracting it.” This observation is made in the catalogue of his art collection (1846) by Josef Hoser, who later obtained the painting.