Lot Essay
This artist’s studio was presumably commissioned directly from the artist along with its pendant, The Sculptor’s Studio, by Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov, whose name is inscribed on the reverse of the copper plates (fig. 1; sold at Christie’s, London, 5 July 2018, lot 51). Shuvalov was a favorite of the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petronova Romanova, and became a page at her court when she ascended to the throne in 1741. As his influence in court grew, so did his determination to use his status to advance education and the fine arts in his country. He helped to form the Imperial Moscow University, as well as Russia’s first theater and academy of arts, and is remembered as a leader of the Russian Enlightenment.
Johann Platzer must have been pleased with the quality of this pair, as he included his self-portrait in each composition. Here, he is shown at center wearing a fur-lined coat, propping up a painting, proudly gazing at the viewer. Platzer takes a similar pose at the center of another version of The Artist’s Studio, now in The Cleveland Museum of Art (inv. no. 2012.41), where he is shown displaying a painting that is similar to his Allegory of the Four Seasons. It is probable then, that the painting Platzer presents here is one of his own as well, although no large-scale composition of Jupiter and Venus with Cupid is known. The large scale Rape of Helen, however, shown on the far wall of the studio, however, is similar to a number of Platzer’s small-scale paintings of the same subject; of which one such example is now in the Wallace Collection, London (inv. no. P364).
Johann Platzer must have been pleased with the quality of this pair, as he included his self-portrait in each composition. Here, he is shown at center wearing a fur-lined coat, propping up a painting, proudly gazing at the viewer. Platzer takes a similar pose at the center of another version of The Artist’s Studio, now in The Cleveland Museum of Art (inv. no. 2012.41), where he is shown displaying a painting that is similar to his Allegory of the Four Seasons. It is probable then, that the painting Platzer presents here is one of his own as well, although no large-scale composition of Jupiter and Venus with Cupid is known. The large scale Rape of Helen, however, shown on the far wall of the studio, however, is similar to a number of Platzer’s small-scale paintings of the same subject; of which one such example is now in the Wallace Collection, London (inv. no. P364).