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Lot Essay
This is one of a series of twelve paintings, probably designed as modelli for a set of tapestries created in 1612-14 for Maximilian I of Bavaria by Hans van der Biest and his workshop (B. Volk-Knttel, Wandteppiche fr den Mnchner Hof nach Entwrfen von Peter Candid, 1976, p. 141, no. 39, figs. 124-7), and which were hung in the Trierzimmer of the Residenz in Munich. The preparatory drawings for the project, now in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich, are by Pieter Candid, who, as court painter to Maximilian, acted as overseer, and who with his studio produced the modelli. The present picture is, in fact, a reverse composition to the tapestry, but faces the same direction as the corresponding drawing (Volk-Knttel, op. cit., p. 172, no. 109, fig. 63).
Although all twelve pictures were recorded as being together at Schloss Birlinghoven in 1907, Volk-Knttel mentions only four of the paintings, regarding only two to be largely by Candid himself. Those two, The Month of April and Spring, depict the Elector, his wife, Elizabeth von Lothringen, and their children, which might explain why they received the artist's personal attention. The others in the series appear to be by various hands, although The Month of March, sold at Sotheby's, 20 April 1988, lot 51, is similar in style to the present picture.
Although all twelve pictures were recorded as being together at Schloss Birlinghoven in 1907, Volk-Knttel mentions only four of the paintings, regarding only two to be largely by Candid himself. Those two, The Month of April and Spring, depict the Elector, his wife, Elizabeth von Lothringen, and their children, which might explain why they received the artist's personal attention. The others in the series appear to be by various hands, although The Month of March, sold at Sotheby's, 20 April 1988, lot 51, is similar in style to the present picture.