Oil Painting, 'Landcape: St Peter in the wilderness', Joachim Franz Beich, late 17th century

An oil painting showing a rocky Italianate landscape with a stream in the manner of Salvator Rosa; the small figure of St Peter is visible in the foreground. The emblematic cock in the left foreground is that which crowed after Peter had denied Christ three times. In his left hand St. Peter is holding a cloth, to indicate that he has been weeping in penitence for his denial.

Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend

Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, listed in the 1868 post-mortem register of the contents of his London house (V&A R/F MA/1/T1181) in the 'Fossil and Mineral Room. Front' (?) as 'An Oil Painting by Joachim Beisch'; Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868.

Historical significance: Beich was the principal German follower of the Neapolitan painter Salvator Rosa (1615-73), who worked in Florence and Rome (See Katrin Bornhoff & Mario Zanucchi, 'Salvator Rosas Spuren in der bildenden Kunst der deutschsprachigen Laender', in Achim Aurnhammer, Guenter Schnitzler & Mario Zanucchi (eds.), Salvator Rosa in Deutschland. Studien zu seiner Rezeption in Kunst, Literatur und Musik, Freiburg i. Br. 2008, pp.132-231 [173-83]. This characteristic work with a single Biblical figure in a wild and gloomy rocky landscape demonstrates the debt of Beich to Rosa. St. Peter is depicted in penitence for denying Christ three times before the cock (at bottom left) crowed. The unusual iconography of this subject derives from that of earlier pictures of St. John the Baptist in the wilderness and the pentient St. Jerome in the desert. For an earlier example of the penitent St. Peter in the wilderness see the painting of 'St. Peter Penitent in a landscape' by David Terniers the Elder (1582-1649) in Dulwich Picture Gallery, cat. no. 314.

Beich became official painter to Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria; this painting, probably done after his visit to Italy in 1704-15, shows the influence of Salvator Rosa. Comparable subjects by Beich include the 'Rocky Landscape with the stigmatisation of St. Francis' in the Zeppelin Museum, Freidrichshafen (Inv. Nr. 1992/4/M) and the 'Rocky Landscape with St John' in a private collection (See Barocke Weltenbilder. Franz Joachim Beich. Hofmaler des bayerischen Kurfuersten Max Emanuel, exhibition catalogue, Zeppelin Museum, Freidrichshafen 1998, cat. nos. 44, 45). The present work (1376-1869) is not mentioned in Barocke Weltenbilder, Freidrichshafen 1998 or in the monograph on the artist by Heidi Buerklin, Franz Joachim Beich (1665-1748): Ein Landschafts- und Schlachtenmaler am Hofe Max Emanuels, Munich 1971.

Wild landscapes with small figures, a genre pioneered by the the Italian painter Salvator Rosa in the middle part of the 17th century, soon became popular throughout Europe. Joachim Franz Beich, an official painter to the Bavarian Court, began to paint landscapes like this painting in the style of Rosa after his visit to Italy in 1704-15. Beich painted similar landscapes featuring St John and Christ and the Apostles (now in the Museum at Landshut in Bavaria, Germany).

1376-1869