(Karlsbad 1745–1829 Rome)
The head of a bay horse,
signed lower left: W Peter,
oil on canvas, 75.5 x 63.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, United Kingdom

Wenzel Peter started his career as an engraver of medals, and painter of decorative objects in Vienna. He travelled to Rome in 1774 to train as a sculptor and remained there for the rest of his life. Wenzel received his first commission, for a terracotta bas-relief with many figures, from Frederick Augustus Harvey, Bishop of Derry and, from 1779, 4th Earl of Bristol. However, Peter grew dissatisfied with sculpture as a medium, and turned instead to painting animals. From 1778 he worked alongside Christoph Unterberger on the decorative scheme of the Villa Borghese, covering the entrance hall with a fresco depicting 160 animals, all based on studies from life.

The most important early collections of Peter’s works have been dispersed: that of the Earl-Bishop (Lord Bristol) following its confiscation in Rome by the French in 1798, and that of the Borghese family during the nineteenth century. For this reason, it is rarely possible to establish an early provenance for Wenzel’s paintings, including the present work. It was executed on a canvas of standard English dimensions, and its plain background relates to works by George Stubbs and Jacques Laurent Agasse suggesting that it was possibly commissioned by an Englishman on the Grand Tour.