The Viennese artist Emil Barbarini was the son of the well-known landscape painter and etcher Franz Barbarini (1804-1873). In contrast to the alpine themes of his father, he early started to focus on depictions of market scenes. His favorite subject was the flower market in front of the Karlskirche in Vienna, but he also executed numerous market impressions of his study trips to the Netherlands and Belgium.

Barbarini was mainly interested in the special handling of light at different times of the day. Similarly to the French artists Degas and Monet, he often painted the same subject at different times, in order to capture the light without the risk of thematic distraction. Paintings by Emil Barbarini are part...