Bidspirit auction | Jacob Samuel Beck

Jacob Samuel Beck - Jacob Samuel Beck ”Playing Cards”. Probably 1769.. Jacob Samuel Beck 1715 Erfurt – 1778 ibid. Oil on canvas. Unsigned. Verso on the stretcher frame inscribed by a foreign hand ”Eigentum Elisabeth Stroux” and ”Grt 1919”. In a gilded, profiled moulding over red bole with central-emphasising crossed band ornaments. Illustrated in: Thomas von Taschitzki, Kai Uwe Schierz (eds.): Jacob Samuel Beck: (1715–1778): zum 300. Geburtstag des Erfurter Malers. Exhibition cat. Erfurt, Angermuseum, Dresden 2016, p. 116, with an erroneously indicated signature. Cf. the counterpart: Jacob Samuel Beck ”Domestic Music”, oil on canvas, 43.5 x 55 cm, 1769, Magdeburg, Kaiser Friedrich Museum (war loss), illustrated in: ibid., p. 17, fig. 3, and in: Georg Biermann, Deutsches Barock und Rokoko, Vol. 2, Leipzig 1914, fig. 796. Re-stretched on what is probably the original stretcher frame, some nails missing. Canvas with small deformations due to low tension. Paint layer with age-related craquelure, climate edge, inherent early shrinkage cracks, and pinpoint retouches. Rebate area with frame-related lesions. Frame shows signs of wear. Dimensions: 43.7 x 57.8 cm, Frame 52 x 65 cm. Jacob Samuel Beck 1715 Erfurt – 1778 ibid. Influential Rococo painter in Erfurt. Son of the local police commissioner. Married in 1734. From 1752, court painter to Karl August of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach. Significant works, besides his portraits, include his 56-part cycle ”Dance of Death” for the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt and his works for the high altar of Erfurt Cathedral.