(St. Michael/Eppan 1704–1761)
An interior with elegant figures playing cards and merry-making,
oil on panel, 38 x 47.5 cm, framed 

Provenance:
Sir Berkeley Digby George Sheffield, 6th Bt. (1876–1946), Normanby Park, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire;
sale, Christie’s, London, 16 July 1943, lot 102, when offered as a pair (75 gns. to Soldman);
Dr. Georg Schäfer-Stiftung (1896–1975), Schweinfurt (according to a label on the reverse);
sale, Neumeister, Munich, 27 February 1999, lot 13 (84,000 DM);
sale, Christie’s, London, 4 December 2013, lot 190

At the time of the 2013 sale, Dr. Christina Pucher confirmed the attribution to Johann Georg Platzer on the basis of photographs.

This vibrant panel depicting a boisterous crowd of merrymakers, musicians and card players was painted by the most important exponent of the Austrian Rococo style, Johann Georg Platzer. Platzer’s cultivated bourgeoise public was fascinated by the virtuoso manner, lively colours and innumerable details of his compositions. Indeed, the present painting exemplifies Platzer’s ability at producing richly detailed works with a particular precision devoted to the rendering of contrasting textures and fabrics.

Platzer’s eclectic paintings in cabinet format met the practical requirements of collecting, which sought increasingly to provide for the fashionable trappings of intimate private rooms. The present composition was clearly popular, since the artist repeated it in both horizontal and vertical formats with slight variations, including a version that last appeared with its pendant on the Belgian art market in 2020 (see sale, Bernaerts Auctioneers, Antwerp, 8 December 2020).