Lot 541: Friedrich Simony (Austrian, 1813-1896) 'DER

Friedrich Simony (Austrian, 1813-1896) 'DER VENEDIGER ZUG VON DER SUDSEITE, AUFGENOMMEN VOM TOINIG W.J.W. VON PREGRATEN: STANDPUNKT 7800 FUSS' Watercolour 30 x 42.8cm The geographer and explorer Friedrich Simony was born on 30th November, 1813 in Bohemia of part Hungarian parentage. He departed for Vienna in 1833 to study pharmacy, but abandoned it after two years. He turned to natural sciences under the tutelage of the botanist Josef Franz Freiherr von Jacquin. His first expedition to Hallstatt and the Dachstein plateau was in 1840, and it was here, whilst studying the geo-morphology of the area and the eight glaciers, that he worked on his first drawings from which he later produced watercolours. From 1851 to 1885 he was a professor at the Univeristy of Vienna and founded the chair of geography. He was a friend of the writer Adalbert Stifter. Five years into his retirement from the university, in 1890, he climbed the Dachstein for the last time. He continued producing drawings until his death in Sankt Gallen on 20th July, 1896. Provenance: said to be from the collection of His Imperial Highness Archduke Frederick of Austria