Johann KUPETZKY workshop
Self portrait with chessboard

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.