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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Professor Alberto Cottino for suggesting the attribution to Knoller from transparencies (written communication, 2 September 2004) and for noting the same hand in five landscapes of very similar dimensions signed by Knoller in 1801 and located in the royal villa of Monza built in 1777 for Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (see the exhibition catalogue La Milano del giovin signore. Le arti nel settecento di Parini, Milano, 1999, pp. 138-142).
Austrian by birth, Martin Knoller became court painter in 1765 to Graf Karl Joseph von Firmian, Imperial Governor of Lombardy. In the years following his appointment he decorated many palaces in Milan, executing ceiling frescoes and oil paintings for the Palazzo Reale (circa 1776-7) and the Palazzo Greppi, as well as three frescoes for the Palazzo Belgioioso (circa 1782-3).
Austrian by birth, Martin Knoller became court painter in 1765 to Graf Karl Joseph von Firmian, Imperial Governor of Lombardy. In the years following his appointment he decorated many palaces in Milan, executing ceiling frescoes and oil paintings for the Palazzo Reale (circa 1776-7) and the Palazzo Greppi, as well as three frescoes for the Palazzo Belgioioso (circa 1782-3).