(Welsberg 1698–1762 Vienna)
The Holy Family with the sleeping Christ Child,
signed at lower right: P. Troger fe.,
oil on canvas, 89 x 58.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection Johann Piering (1897–1968), Waidhofen/Thaya;
sale Dorotheum, Vienna, 29 November 1966, Lot 119;
Private collection, Austria

Exhibited:
Innsbruck, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Paul Troger, der Maler des österreichischen Barock, 1962;

Salzburg, Residenzgalerie, Österreichische Meisterwerke aus Privatbesitz und Stiftsgalerien. Von der Spätgotik zum Barock, 1969

Literature:
Paul Troger, der Maler des österreichischen Barock, exhibition catalogue, Innsbruck, 1962, p. 48, no. 46;
W. Aschenbrenner, G. Schweighofer, Paul Troger – Leben und Werk, Salzburg, 1965, p. 101, pl. XV;
Alte und Moderne Kunst, 12, 1967, H. 90, p. 55;
Österreichische Meisterwerke aus Privatbesitz und Stiftsgalerien. Von der Spätgotik zum Barock, exh. cat., Salzburg, 1969, no. 84, fig. 28;
J. Kronbichler, Paul Troger, Munich/Berlin, 2012, p. 96, p. 298, no. G 72

The composition of the present painting, which seems to date from the period around 1738/40, largely corresponds with a Holy Family by Troger in a Viennese private collection (ex Seitenstetten Monastery, see J. Kronbichler, no. G 71), which, however, shows the Virgin Mary as a three-quarter-length figure. Moreover, our painting also compares to a Virgin Mary with the Sleeping Christ Child in Herzogenburg Monastery (see J. Kronbichler, no. G 73), in which the Child is very similar, in fact almost identical, to that in the present composition.