(Graz 1703–1761 Vienna)
Esther before King Ahasuerus (Esther 5:1–2, 9–18),
oil on copper, 44.3 x 59 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Dorotheum Vienna, 25 May 1982, lot 415a;
Private collection, Vienna

The present work, with its crowded composition, is an excellent example of Janneck’s elegant history paintings. The artist’s oeuvre was dominated by such festive and richly orchestrated scenes. Like his friend and colleague, the painter Johann Georg Platzer, Janneck was primarily devoted to small-sized formats executed in a meticulous and delicate painting style. Most of his works are structured by various figures in an ambitious arrangement of composition and colour. During the eighteenth century, Janneck’s paintings were in high demand among international collectors and figured in numerous European art collections

Christina Pucher confirmed the present paining as an authentic work by Franz Christoph Janneck. She will include it in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Janneck’s paintings. A pendant to the current painting, entitled The Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, is signed and dated 1751, and was sold separately as the successive lot in the same sale (sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 15 September 1981, lot 83).