Michaeler Platz mit altem Burgtheater

Michaeler Platz mit altem Burgtheater (Michaeler Platz with the Old Burgtheater), dated 1866 and in the Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany, documents a Vienna that was in the final years before the massive Ringstrasse transformation would replace much of the city's Baroque and Biedermeier fabric. The old Burgtheater — designed by Josef Emanuel Fischer von Erlach and later remodelled — occupied the Michaeler Platz from 1741 until it was demolished in 1888 when the new Burgtheater on the Ring opened. Alt's 1866 painting thus acquires retrospective documentary value as a record of an urban complex that no longer exists. The Michaeler Platz itself, with the Michaelertor of the Hofburg forming its curved backdrop, was one of Vienna's most architecturally dense spaces, and Alt captures its layered Baroque complexity with characteristic precision.

Oil on canvas gives Alt the tonal range to render the varied Baroque facades of the Michaeler Platz — their ochres, greys, and warm whites responding differently to afternoon light. His handling of the curved Hofburg wing's rusticated surface shows the same sensitivity to texture that marks his watercolour architectural work.