Schwarzenberg Palace (New Market)

Schwarzenberg Palace (New Market), a watercolour or paper-based work from 1832, depicts the Palais Schwarzenberg — or more likely the Schwarzenberg monument in the Neuer Markt (New Market square, today the Mehlmarkt) — a central Viennese urban space with a long commercial and civic history. The Neuer Markt in 1832 was dominated by the Providentia Fountain (the Donnerbrunnen) and surrounded by aristocratic palaces and middle-class commercial buildings. Alt's early views of Vienna's public spaces are distinguished by their social completeness: he recorded not only the architecture but the market stalls, pedestrians, and commercial activity that gave each space its character. This work belongs to the intensive topographic survey of Vienna that Alt conducted in the early 1830s as he established his practice.

Paper-based medium — watercolour or pencil — gives this early view the tonal precision Alt had mastered by 1832. His architectural washes are applied over precise pencil underdrawing that established the proportional relationships of the surrounding palaces and the fountain's sculptural ensemble before colour was added.