(Donauwörth 1622–1700 Brixen/Bressanone)
The Queen of Sheba before Solomon,
oil on canvas, 147 x 206 cm, unframed

We are grateful to Jacek Tylicki for suggesting the attribution on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph and for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

The present painting can be dated to circa 1640-1645. It is similar to some of the earliest known works by Kessler which display a similar accuracy in meticulously rendered decorative detail, according to Tylicki, and can be compared to works such as Summer (1649) in the Diocesean Museum Hofburg Brixen (see L. Andergassen, H. Stampfer (eds.), Stephan Kessler 1622-1700. Ein Tiroler Maler der Rubenszeit, exhibition catalogue, Brixen 2005, p. 220, 222, cat. no. and ill. 71).

Stephan Kessler was active in Brixen (Bressanone) in South Tyrol and his father, also a painter was originally from Breslau (Wrocław) in Silesia. Large format canvases, such as the present painting devoted to subjects from ancient mythology and history, as well as from the Old Testament, are well represented in his oeuvre. Another painting of the Queen of Sheba before Solomon by Kessler from a later period is conserved in the National Museum, Warsaw (inv. no. M. Ob.1030).