(Wrocław 1717–1766 Vienna)
Self-portrait (?),
oil on canvas, 60.5 x 50 cm, framed

Provenance:
probably Collection of Count Anton Brunsvick (1745–1793), Mártonvásár Castle, Hungary;
probably thence by descent to his son Count Ferenc Brunsvick de Korompa (1777–1849);
thence by descent to his son Count Géza Brunsvick de Korompa (1834–1899), Mártonvásár Castle and later Sommerau Castle, Spittal am Semmering, Austria;
their sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 25 November 1902, lot 189 (as Jan Kupetzky);
Kornwiller collection, Switzerland;
Private European collection

Literature:
Zlatá Praha. Obrazový týdennik pro zábavu a pouceni, XXV (1908), no. 19, p. 228, illustrated p. 217 (as Jan Kupetzky);
T. von Frimmel, Blätter für Gemäldekunde, Vienna 1905, vol. I, no. 10, pp. 180–181 (as Jan Kupetzky);
E. Šafařík, Johannes Kupezky 1667–1740, Prague 1928, pp. 145–146, cat. no. 418 (as Jan Kupetzky, questioning whether it is a self-portrait);
E. A. Safarik, Künstler aus dem Umkreis von Johann Kupezky. Ausgewählte Werke, Brno 2014, p. 35, cat. no. Pa 2, illustrated p. 111 (as Franz Anton Palko ‘self-portrait’; with partially wrong provenance)

We are grateful to Georg Lechner for endorsing the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph.

It has been suggested that the present painting is a self-portrait of Franz Anton Palko, and it relates to a similar composition attributed to the artist in the Slovenská národna galéria, Bratislava (inv. no. O 88). The sitter is shown frontally against a dark background, with his body turned into profile, focusing on the viewer. The loose brushwork and gentle modulation of the shadows give the depiction spontaneity and lightness of touch. The composition, with its dramatic chiaroscuro and limited colour palette, reveals the influence of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, as well as Jan Kupetzky.

The present portrait was formerly in the prestigious collection of the Hungarian Counts of Brunsvick, former councillors who were raised to the rank of Count by Emperor Joseph II in 1775. The Brunsvick art collection was based on the works purchased by Count Paul Ráday de Ráda in Péczel in the second half of the 18th century. His son Gedeon, one of the founders of the National Theatre in Budapest, enlarged the collection and eventually sold it to Count Anton Brunsvik. As a result, the collection was transferred to the Brunsvick Castle in Mártonvásár and was expanded by his son Ferenc, a close friend and patron of Ludwig van Beethoven. Géza Brunsvick, the last male descendant of the family, moved the collection to Sommerau Castle near Spital am Semmering in Austria, where several additional rooms had to be built to accommodate the collection.

Franz Anton Palko was born into a family of artists and was appreciated by his contemporaries especially for his portraits. He began his career in the service of Archbishop Emmerich of Esterházy in Bratislava. After a stay in Brno, Palko is documented in Vienna from 1759, where he worked as a portrait painter, even working for the Imperial family. The novelist Joseph von Sonnenfels mentioned Palko in his lecture on the merits of portrait painting in 1768 together with the famous painters Rigaud, Vanloo, Nattier, Roslin, Greuze and Meytens (see J. von Sonnenfels, Von der Verdienste des Portraitmalers in einer außerordentlichen Versammlung der k.k. freyen Zeichnung- und Kupferstecherakademie am 23. September 1768, Wien 1768, pp. 12–13). Paintings by the artist are conserved in the Belvedere, Vienna, in the Salzburg Museum and in the Slovenská národna galéria, Bratislava.