In October 2017, we presented for the first time in the Museum of the City of Rijeka a comprehensive overview of the complete works of a forgotten “Master of Light” Leontine von Littrow. On the occasion of this exhibition a comprehensive monograph about the artist Leontine von Littrow was published, which you can order from us. In this work about her life and work, the Austrian art landscape is expanded by a highly interesting chapter. In the ranks of the numerous artists of the turn of the century who also traveled the sea and the coasts of the monarchy and documented them in important paintings, Leontine von Littrow is probably the most extraordinary painter of the Austrian Riviera.

She came from an old Austrian noble family. Her father was a cartographer and writer. He was appointed head of the local nautical academy in Trieste, where Leontine von Littrow was born as Camilla Leontine von Littrow. One of her eleven uncles was the famous astronomer, university professor and director of the Vienna Observatory Carl Ludwig von Littrow, who was married to the writer and women’s rights activist Auguste von Littrow. Their common daughter was the painter Ella von Littrow, later married Lang, with whose biography the one Leontine from Littrowsis sometimes mixed. Leontine grew up in the home of this well-educated family, whose salon was a focal point of intellectual Vienna. Feuchtersleben, Dannhauser, Ebner-Eschenbach, Hebbel, Grillparzer and Ottilie v. Goethe also stayed there. Leontine von Littrow received her training in Paris as a student of Jean d’Alheim, where she was influenced by the Impressionists. Leontine von Littrow got to know the area around Trieste and Abbazia at an early age, which she repeatedly chose as the subject of her paintings. Leontine von Littrow captured them in numerous city and harbor views, bays and coastal surf studies. Her interest in the Istrian and Dalmatian landscape united her with Olga Wisinger-Florian, with whom she shared both artistic interests and a private friendship.

To be recognized as a painter before the turn of the century was difficult for women. However, there is already an indication of their appreciation at that time; not only recurring exhibitions in Vienna, Munich and especially London; but when in the years from 1883-86 orders were placed for the furnishing of the Hochparterresäle in the Museum of Natural History with paintings, was Leontine von Littrow the only female painter who was not passed over. The paintings depict the coast of Ragusa.

Leontine von Littrow was a member of the Vereinigung Bildender Künstlerinnen Österreichs.