(Lengsdorf/Bonn 1738–1818 Vienna)
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
oil on canvas, 69 x 45 cm, framed

We are grateful to Robert Keil for suggesting the attribution for the present painting.

In 1802, Heinrich Friedrich Füger and Hubert Maurer were entrusted with the commission of new altarpieces for the side altars of the Hofburg chapel in Vienna on behalf of Emperor Francis II. The two paintings were delivered in November 1803. Each of the artists was paid 5,000 guilders, which was a substantial amount of money at the time. Füger’s painting, Saint John the Baptist in a Gesture of Blessing, was removed at the emperor’s request as early as 1822, when the chapel was renovated, and transferred to the imperial picture gallery at the Belvedere. Maurer’s painting, which seems to have been more in compliance with contemporary taste and the emperor’s aesthetic preferences, remained in situ (see R. Keil, ‘Johannes der Täufer segnend’ und ‘Die heilige Katharina vor Kaiser Maxentius’, in: Belvedere, Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst, no. 1/2004, p. 5667).

The present painting, which comes from an Austrian private collection, was regarded as a work by the Füger school. Robert Keil succeeded in identifying it as the study by Hubert Maurer for his altarpiece at the Vienna Hofburg chapel.