Johann KUPETZKY workshop
Self portrait with chessboard
Lotto 253
36 50040 000
Oil on canvas
92 x 75 cm
Provenance:
Private Collection, Europe.
Approved by expert René MILLET
Literature:
Catalogue raisonné of Johann
Kupetzky, E. Šafařík, 148c
A self-portrait of Johann Kupetzky,
performed by his studio and existing in
many variants (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart,
Slovak National Gallery Batislava).
Johann Kupetzky (Pezinok, around
1667 – Nuremberg, 1740), of Slovak
origin, was born in a family of weavers
who had fled to Hungary because of
their membership in the Bohemian
brethren. He studied painting in
Lucerne, then Vienna. He made a trip
to Italy and worked for many years
in Rome as a portrait painter and
landscape painter as well as a history
painter. At the request of the prince
of Liechtenstein, Kupetsky returned
to Vienna around 1708. He quickly
became a fashionable portrait painter,
much appreciated by the Emperors
Leopold I and Joseph, I in particular for
the tempers he inspired into his models.
In 1723 he was expelled from Vienna
because of his religious affiliation and
moved to Nuremberg.