Summer

Date

pre 1761 (painted)

Artist/maker

Platzer, Johann Georg, born 1704 - died 1761 (artist)

Materials and Techniques

Oil on copper

Dimensions

Height: 43.8 cm estimate, Width: 57 cm estimate

Object history note

Bequeathed by Mrs Julia Anne Bonnor, 1901

Descriptive line

Oil painting, 'Summer', Johann Georg Platzer

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Kauffmann, C.M. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, pp.222-224, cat. no. 278
The following is the full text of the entry:

Johann Georg PLATZER (1704-61)
Austrian School
Born at St Michael, Eppan in the Tyrol, he was a pupil of his stepfather Jos. Anton Kessler at Innsbruck and of his uncle Johann Christoph Platzer in Passau. From 1728, when he entered the Vienna Academy, he worked mainly in Vienna. He painted genre, historical and mythological subjects, influenced by the Antwerp school of the 17th century, in particular the Francken family and Jan Brueghel.

Lit. G. Agath, Johann Georg Platzer, ein Geseltschaftsmaler des Wiener Rococo, Dresden. 1955.

278
SUMMER
Copper
17 ¼ X 22 ½ (43.8 X 57)
368-1901

One of a set of four Seasons (see the following three numbers). The subjects, especially dancing for Spring, music for Summer and winemaking for Autumn are well known from engravings (for example, the set by J. Saenredam after H. Goltzius; Bartsch, iii, p. 258, nos. 119-22) but the emphasis on bacchanalian feasting is typical of Platzer's work. Another cycle of Seasons by Platzer, with similar but not identical compositions, is in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Bulletin, li, 1962, p. 80, repr.; Annual Report, 1964). In both series the figures are mainly in 17th century dress.

Prov. Capt. C. S. Ricketts, R.N.; passed to his daughter, Mrs J. A. Bonnor, who bequeathed the set to the Museum in 1901.

Labels and date

Revised Jones Gallery Label, November 2000 (Mary Guyatt):

SPRING and SUMMER
By Johann Georg Platzer (1704-61)
AUSTRIAN; about 1740
Oil on copper

These dancing and feasting scenes represent Spring and Summer respectively. Such seasonal subjects were popular in the eighteenth century, produced by many artists and widely available in the form of engraved prints.

Platzer specialised in historical and mythological scenes and was influenced by Flemish art of the previous century; the figures here are dressed in seventeenth century fashions.

Bequeathed by Mrs J. A. Bonner
367-1901
368-1901 [2000]

Materials

Oil paint; Copper

Techniques

Oil painting

Subjects depicted

Men; Women; Fountains; Summer; Lutes; Fantastic architecture

Categories

Paintings

Collection code

PDP