MARCUS PERNHART (1824-1871)
Mittagskogel / Kepa (2,145 m - 7,037 ft)
Austria, Slovenia border
In Mittagskogel ud Villacher Becken vom Dobratsch gegen Osten, oil on canvas, 1850
The mountain
The Mittagskogel in Austrian or Kepa in Slovenian ( 2,145 m- 7,037 ft) is the third highest mountain in the Karawanks range, after Hochstuhl/Stol and the Vertratscha/Vrtača. It is located on the border between Slovenia and Austria.
The massif consisting of main dolomite and Dachstein limestone beds rises between the Slovene Sava valley in the south and the Austrian Drau basin in the north. Its steep northern face, resembling a rocky pyramid with a rounded summit is a landmark in Carinthia.
The mountain is usually climbed from the village of Belca on its Slovenian side. An Alpine club hut, the Berta Hut, located at an elevation of 1,567 m (5,141 ft), can be reached from the Austrian municipality of Finkenstein; from here, the normal route leads to the summit.
Mentioned as Copan mons in a 1650 map, the German oronym Mittagskogel (Midday Peak) denotes the position of the sun above the summit at noon.
The painter
Markus Pernhart was a Carinthian Slovenian / Austrian painter. He is considered the first Slovene realistic landscape painter. Early on, he began to paint panels ans humorous works, offered at Klagenfurt weekly market. At barely 12 years, he painted the guest rooms of Krajcar Restaurant between Klagenfurt and Völkermarkt. The innkeeper made, the bishop's chaplain Henr. Hermann discovered the talented boys. At 15, he trained in painting first with Andreas Hauser in Klagenfurt. Soon after, he got contact with the Viennese art scene, particularly to Franz Steinfeld, who taught at the Academy of Fine Arts. It was forwarded to the Munich Academy, but soon returned to Carinthia. There he was promoted by his stage name Pernhart the famous landscape painter of his time.
When Pernhart's drawing style had fully developed, he was asked by Max Moro to draw all Castles Carinthia. The idea was to these buildings if they could often for financial reasons can not be obtained, at least to preserve the picture, thereby preserving from decay. Markus Pernhart does not disappoint its customers and held in pencil drawings smallest details of the well-preserved, but also the already partly decayed plants firmly. Already in 1853, he produced 40 drawings followed by 198 others, he property of the Historical Association for Carinthia. In 1855 he gave the Carinthian estates Empress Elisabeth, an album of 21 drawings to which Max Moro contributed. Entitled images from Carinthia appeared in 1863-1868 in deliveries as steel engravings with accompanying. After his death appeared 5 lithographic panoramic images (Klagenfurt in 1875 and 1889).
His entire painted oeuvre consists of approximately 1,200 paintings, drawings and engravings that delight even after his death a large appreciation. Pernhart presented landscapes, preferably lakes and high mountain motifs or castles, but also animals and still life subjects, in an idyllic and pathetic style. His works can be seen against the background of an incipient leisure society, they lead before the regional status objects of his home.