Portrait of Isabella Reisser

Anton Romako's Portrait of Isabella Reisser (1885) belongs to his late portrait production — work that combined psychological acuity with a loosening of academic technique that anticipates Expressionism. Little is documented about Isabella Reisser herself, but as a Romako portrait subject she joins the series of Viennese bourgeois sitters — many from the prominent Jewish families who were among his most supportive patrons — that constitutes one of his most significant bodies of work. Romako's female portraits are particularly notable for their refusal of flattery, treating each sitter as a psychological subject rather than a decorative presence.

Romako's portrait technique by 1885 was fully developed in its distinctive manner: nervous, restless brushwork beneath careful observation of the sitter's specific physiognomy and expression. The technical looseness is deliberate rather than careless — it creates a surface tension that communicates psychological unease or complexity. His palette is warm-toned for female subjects, with careful rendering of fabric and accessories, but consistently subordinates decoration to face and expression as the portrait's psychological center.