Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller

(Vienna 1793–1865)
Drink for the Rider, rearranged copy after Pieter van Laer (1592/95–1642), oil on panel, 79 x 62 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
Collection Möller, Temesvar, Hungary;
Private collection, Munich;
Wydler Art dealership, Zurich 27. 9. 1955;
Collection Dr. Georg Schäfer, Schweinfurt (inventory number 1777);
German private collection;
Neumeister Auction 21. 9. 2011, lot 583;
German private collection.

Exhibited:
Schweinfurt 1978, Schäfer Collection, no. 26.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Rupert Feuchtmüller, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Leben, Schriften, Werke, published by Christian Brandstätter, Vienna 1996, p. 489, CR no. 718.

The present lot is a copy of the painting Costa all’osteria by the Flemish painter Peter van Laers (1592/95-1642), owned by the Galleria Spada in Rome. The scene shows a rider stopping at an inn, perhaps in the Via Margutta, the street in Rome that, since the Middle Ages, offered accommodation to German and Flemish artists in particular. Waldmüller’s studies of 17th century Flemish and Dutch painting are also reflected in his genre paintings. The copy of an Old Master indicates his appreciation of this period, although, with more nuanced colours and in his handling of light and shade, Waldmüller has skillfully demonstrated his accomplished technical abilities.