Der Schriftsteller Hermann Rollett am Wasserfall

Anton Romako was Austrian painting's most psychologically intense figure — a portraitist whose works push beyond conventional likeness into something unsettling and probing. This 1885 portrait of the writer Hermann Rollett at a waterfall belongs to his characteristic outdoor portrait subjects, in which the natural setting provides both compositional drama and psychological amplification. Romako spent years in Rome before returning to Vienna, where his work was initially rejected but later recognized as a precursor of Austrian Expressionism. The Belvedere in Vienna holds a significant body of his work.

The waterfall provides a dramatic natural backdrop that heightens the portrait's psychological intensity — the rushing water behind the still figure creating productive tension. Romako's technique is characteristically unsettled — brushwork that refuses conventional finish, compositions that create rather than dissolve psychological pressure. His palette is varied and expressive.