Original sketches of Vienna World's Fair

[Vienna World's Fair of 1873. - Hock, Johann Nepomuk, musician and amateur artist (1850-1930)? - attributed]. Sketch book and travel journal.

€ 2,800.00

Charming, pocket-sized diary, kept mainly during September 1873 by a visitor to the Vienna's 1873 World's Fair, containing brief travel notes illustrated throughout with dozens of very talented watercolour sketches. The journal and the often dated drawings permit the reader to follow the traveller's itinerary from his arrival at Vienna's Hotel Zillinger on September 4th.

Several drawings of the fairground buildings deserve special mention, including those of the Rotunda, the Egyptian pavilion, the Japanese garden, and the wigwam. During his visit on September 6th, the artist appears to have been told off by a watchman while sketching the interior of a pavilion: "you must not draw here, what if the police should see you ... I'm telling you as a friend". A visit to Meyerbeer's opera "L'Africaine" on September 10th is documented by vivid sketches of the interior of the Court Opera Theatre and of the stage designs (by Johann Kautsky). There are also several uncommon views of Vienna, including one across the Danube Canal towards Kahlenberg at sunset, another of a building on Franz-Josefs-Quai, the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church on Fleischmarkt, but also a scene in the still-extant Café Wortner in the 4th District.

Apart from these keenly observed urban motifs, the album boasts numerous charming landscapes: the artist made several railroad excursions to the environs of Vienna (Wiener Neustadt Cathedral, Semmering, Mürzzuschlag, Melk Abbey, Maria Taferl), but also to the Salzburger Alps (Dürrnberg, Hallein, Königssee, Watzmann, and Berchtesgaden). At the very end of the book is a pencil portrait of the "Kammermusikus Fritz Haller", dated 23 December 1873.

While the sketch book is not signed, it may be tentatively ascribed to the young military band leader Johann Nepomuk Hock of Budapest, who in 1873 was changing from Cracow's 13th Infantry Regiment to the 39th, based in Vienna. This attribution is supported by the record of arrivals published in Vienna's "Fremdenblatt" of 5 September 1873 and the musician's portrait at the end of the volume. Hock, who would return to the 13th Infantry Regiment in 1883, is remembered as the composer of the "No. 13 Regiment March"; the wind music archive of Graz's University of Music and Performing Arts preserves the manuscript of his "Sardana March".