One of the 4 oval landscape paintings on paper with views from the Austrian Salzkammergut and South Tyrol. All paintings were executed by Austrian landscape artist Carl Lafite (1830 - Vienna - 1900).

This actually work depicts view of mount Monte Cristallo in the Italian Dolomites, Area Trentino in South Tyrol.

Carl Lafite, also spelled Charles or Karl Lafitte, also Laffite, was the son of Charles Lafite , who fled from Bordeaux to Vienna after the French Revolution, tournament chess master and French teacher at the Vienna Theresianum and younger brother of Ernst Lafite (1826–1885).

From 1848 our painter Charles ( Carl) Lafite studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Eduard Peithner von Lichtenfels and Franz Steinfeld. He exhibited his landscape paintings from 1849 in the Academy exhibitions at St. Anna and from 1853 in the Austrian Art Association. In 1861 he was a founding member of the "Cooperative of Fine Artists in Vienna" and was invited to the opening of the Imperial-Royal Artists´ House honored in 1868 on the marble plaque in the presidential office.

Lafite was a drawing teacher in aristocratic families, whose castles he painted. He was married to Helene Daumer from a German family of philosophers – known for the letters she wrote about Kaspar Hauser. His son was the pianist and composer Carl Lafite (1872-1944). Lafite later moved more and more from oil painting to watercolor. He painted nature studies and mood pictures with symbolic content. He chose his motifs from trips to document Austria in its diversity of the Alps, the Danube and the Vienna Prater, and in Germany he devoted himself to romantic motifs on the Rhine and Moselle.

Works by the artist : Vienna Historical Museum and private collections.

Literature: " Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler" by Thieme/Becker, Leipzig, 1999; Prof.Fuchs"Austrian Artists of 19 century", Vienna, 1975; "List of paintings of 19th century„ " by Friedrich von Boetticher.

Inscription: on the back of cardboard - original label with the artist‘s name (Charles Lafite) and the inscription with the title of the painting with inventory number of previous collection : " Monte Cristallo Nr. 257-143-1".

Technique: Oil on paper, laid down on cardboard, painted in oval, matted and framed.

Measurements: unframed w 7 1/8" x h 5 7/8" (18 x 15 cm), framed w 10 3/8" x h 8 1/8" (26,3 x 20,5 cm).

Condition: in very good condition.