Artist

(b. 1832, Atzgersdorf, d. 1889, Wien)

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Details

Austrian painter. He studied (1847-49) at the Akademie in Vienna, then (1849) at the Akademie in Munich, and finally in Vienna again as a private pupil of Carl Rahl. In Rudolf of Habsburg by the Corpse of King Ottokar (1850-54; Vienna, Belvedere) Romako adopted Rahl's style of history painting. After 1854 Romako spent over two decades away from Vienna. At first he travelled in Italy and Spain and in 1857 settled in Rome. During these years he enjoyed great success, working in both oil and watercolour, and especially with genre scenes of peasant life in the rural outskirts of Rome. He often imbued such scenes with a saccharine charm, and sometimes his subjects took on a fantastical appearance, notably The Fisherboy (1872; Vienna, Belvedere). Romako also frequently painted portraits at this period, especially of his friends or family, as in the Artist's Wife and Two Daughters at the Breakfast Table (c. 1873; Vienna, Belvedere). In 1873, at the invitation of an English family for whom he had already worked in Rome, Romako travelled to London to paint portraits. In 1876 he left Rome and tried to re-establish himself in Vienna. He was not successful, however, his style being found too idiosyncratic. This was especially the case with his painting Admiral Tegetthoff in the Sea Battle near Lissa (c. 1879; Vienna, Belvedere), which was devoid of heroic idealism. From this period, therefore, Romako relied increasingly on financial help and occasional commissions from private patrons, such as Count Kuefstein, with whom he stayed at Greillenstein, in Lower Austria. He also produced remarkable landscape paintings at Bad Gastein where he stayed in 1877 (Vienna, Belvedere). In 1878 he was in Paris, and from 1882 to 1884 he alternated between Paris and Geneva. During the last years of his life he often stayed in Baden, near Vienna, and with Count Kuefstein, but he died in neglect and poverty. //

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Category	Artists
Artists by letter	R
Artist nationality	Austrian