SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
Robert Russ’s landscape painting took shape in Vienna, in contact with academic teaching and a family already involved in the arts. Andreas Robert Russ was the son of the painter Franz Russ and the brother of Franz Seraph Russ, a portrait and genre painter; he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1861 to 1868 in the class of the landscape painter Albert Zimmermann. From 1869, he exhibited regularly at the Vienna Künstlerhaus and took part in the first international art exhibition held in Munich, where he received his first major prize.
From 1869 to 1890, his travels took him, among other places, to Italy, South Tyrol, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Bohemia and Moravia. Italy — in particular Lake Garda, Venice and Rome — and South Tyrol were, according to the source, his principal landscape models. Russ is associated with Stimmungsimpressionismus, a current within Austrian Impressionism. His artistic career is also presented as a personal pursuit developed in contact with the painting of Théodore Rousseau and Narcisse Díaz de la Peña, as well as that of German realist painters. Helgoland, dated around 1877, and Landscape with Ponds and Farms, dated around 1885, are held at the Belvedere in Vienna. Venice also appears in his work in Le Palazzo Del Cammello, an oil painting on canvas from 1882; later, Gorge and Hermitage of San Romedio in Val di Non, dated 1893, and Saint Michael’s Gate in Riva are also held at the Belvedere.
From the mid-1870s, he was associated with several projects for large-scale mural decoration in Viennese cultural buildings. These included the geological collection of the University of Vienna, the Natural History Museum and the Burgtheater; a mural at the Kunsthistorisches Museum is also attributed to him. The presence of his work at the Kunsthistorisches Museum is also documented by Courtyard of Fürstenburg Castle at Bergeis, an oil painting on canvas held in the museum’s collection. The painter’s work and career were the subject of Andrea Christine Winklbauer’s art history dissertation, defended at the University of Vienna in 2008 under the title Der Landschaftsmaler und das moderne Leben. Robert Russ (1847-1922) im Kontext seiner Zeit.
This profile brings together identity references for Robert Russ and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
4 references are documented at Dobiaschofsky, Schuler. Each record links to its source; the amounts are not a general valuation of the artist’s work.
Oil on wood
Alte Wassermühle.
Öl auf Holz
Catalogue period : 2022-11-04
Published result : 1400 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 2400
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Oil on canvas
Südliche Küstenlandschaft
Öl auf Leinwand
Catalogue period : 2021-03-26
Published result : 32000 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 20000–40000
View the lot at the auction house ↗Mixed media on painting board
"Sirmione am Gardasee".
Mischtechnik auf Malkarton
Catalogue period : 2013-05-17
Published result : 6000 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 2200
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Oil on artist’s board
Landschaft im Mondschein mit Figuren und Fackel.
Öl auf Malkarton
Date to be documented
Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
Documentation updated : 2026-10-19
