Johann Adalbert Angermeyer

MuDr Dimitrij Slonim (1925-2017), Prague;

From whom acquired by the present collector, 2001.

Johann Adalbert Angermeyer was one of the first, and most important, Bohemian still-life specialists. Active in the first third of the 18^th century in and around Prague, Angermeyer trained under the Swiss-born artist Johann Rudolf Byss, who was also working in this city from 1689-1713. From Byss, Angermeyer inherited his distinctly precise attention to detail, and he quickly became well-known among the collecting aristocracy in the region for his painstakingly rendered cabinet still-lifes, a genre that was particularly prized in Bohemia since the reign of Rudolf II. 

Angermeyer’s exploration of the still-life genre included woodland landscapes, floral bouquets, hunting scenes, and trompe l’oeuil paintings of birds, as visible in the present example, which has been brilliantly rendered with the artist’s characteristic rich coloration and energetic brushwork. This particular motif of a simple group of birds suspended from a nail by a string was one that Angermeyer specifically explored early in his career. For example, around 1702, Angermeyer collaborated with Johann Michael Bretschneider (1657-1727) on a pendant pair of comparable still-lifes, both of which can be found today in the Gallery of Fine Arts in Cheb, Czech Republic.¹ A pair of similarly closely related early trompe l’oeuil still lifes by the artist, formerly in the collection of Count Clemens Franz von Bayern, are today in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich,² one of which is nearly identical in composition to the present canvas (inv. 6082).

Many of Angermeyer's works entered important Bohemian and Central European collections during his lifetime, and today numerous examples by him are preserved in museum collections throughout Central Europe, including the National Gallery of Prague,³ the Belvedere in Vienna,⁴ and the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.⁵ 

A Note on the Provenance:

This painting once formed part of the collection of Dimitrij Slonim, the famed Czech virologist and immunologist. In addition to being a ground-breaking medical scientist, Dr. Slonim was a passionate collector of 19th Century Czech art, with particular emphasis on Josef Navratil (1798-1865), about whom he wrote a book, as well as August Piepenhagen (1791-1868) and Ludek Marold (1865-1898).

1. Johann Adalbert Angermeyer: inv. no. 0735, oil on canvas, 60 by 45 cm. Johann Michael Bretschneider: inv. no. 0736, oil on canvas, 60 by 45 cm. For both of these works, see also H. Seifertova, Johann Adalbert Angermeyer (1674-1742), Prague 2015, pp. pp. 47-49, reproduced in color p. 48.

2. Inv. nos. 6081 and 6082.  See Seifertova 2015, p. 206, cat. nos. 5 and 6.

3. Inv. nos. DO 5416, DO 5417, DO 4853, DO 18016.

4. Inv. nos. 1453 and 1454.

5. Inv. nos. 1554, 1690, 1691, 1692, 5197, 5851, 5871, 5875, 6009, 6010, 6081, 6082.