(Karlsbad 1742–1829 Rome)
A Tiger and a Lion fight over a Fawn, dated 1809,
oil on canvas, 81 x 103 cm, framed, (GG).

Johann Wenzel Peter moved permanently to Rome in 1774 and was appointed Professor at the Accademia di San Luca in 1812.
He is considered the most celebrated and sought-after animal painter in Rome between the last quarter of the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th century. Among his patrons he counted Prince Marcantonio III Borghese, for whom between 1776 and 1777 he decorated the interior of the Casino di Villa Borghese with 162 different animals painted in fresco without any preparatory drawings.

He acquired international prestige in the early years of the 19th century. In 1830 in an obituary, the German review ‘Kunstblatt’ described him as “the man who painted animal’s portraits” and pointed out that his paintings were not simply still in demand, but had entered many European collections.

The esteem that Peter enjoyed at the papal court was confirmed when his daughter, Marianna Peter, turned to Pope Gregory XVI in 1831, two years after her father’s death, to sell some of the pictures that had remained unsold in his workshop. The pope bought eleven paintings, and they were immediately transferred to the Vatican to join the museum collection. One of the most outstanding of these works, in terms of both size and quality, is Peter’s monumental canvas depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Another version of the present lot is in the Vatican Museum. The subject is similar but with the substantial difference that the Fawn is missing. There is a third version, slightly smaller, which was auctioned at Sotheby’s in London in 2015.