The Grossglockner with the Pasterze Glacier
Ender does not show the Pasterze, Austria’s largest glacier, as glistening white and covered in snow, but as dirty and brown, crisscrossed by crevasses and fissures: an inhospitable, hostile natural environment of rock and ice, with the Grossglockner towering in the background. But this did not deter Ender and Archduke Johann of Austria from setting off to explore the glacier at the height of summer 1832. The expedition was driven by Johann’s interest in science and his enthusiasm for the mountains. In his diaries, he objectively discusses the formation of glaciers and compares them to streams and rivers. Johann even describes the Pasterze’s slight curvature, which we can see in Ender’s painting.
1832
Oil on canvas
39.0 x 54.0cm
6068
Image © Belvedere, Vienna, 2024
Where you'll find this
Upper Belvedere
Permanent collection
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Thomas Ender, The Grossglockner with the Pasterze Glacier
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The Grossglockner with the Pasterze Glacier by Thomas Ender
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