Hans Makart

Hans Makart was the star painter of 1870s Vienna. His huge canvases are rich and theatrical, crowded with figures, flowers and fabric in deep reds, golds and browns. His taste was so influential that a whole style of Viennese decoration, the Makartstil, was named after him.

Born in Salzburg, he studied in Vienna and then in Munich under Karl von Piloty, and travelled to London, Paris and Rome. In Vienna he was given a large former foundry as a studio, which he filled with antiques, tapestries and exotic objects and turned into a fashionable meeting place. In 1879 he designed the great historical pageant for the silver wedding of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth, riding at its head on a white horse. Many of his paintings are in the Belvedere in Vienna.

His portraits, such as Portrait of a Woman in a Pageant Costume, show his love of rich costume and deep, glowing colour.