Johann Heinrich Keller

The actual painting is softer and less red in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. The canvas has a stable relining. There's a fine craquelure throughout, which is slightly starting to lift in the lower and upper right corners. No major damages seem to be apparent. The paint layer is well preserved and under a slightly dirty layer of varnish. A few very tiny retouched scattered paint losses can be observed, e.g. in the trees upper left, in the pedestal on the right, in the lower foreground. Under UV light some tiny additional ones can be made out. Overall, the painting is in good condition. Offered in a decorative gilt plaster and wood frame, with some damages along the lower edge. (MW)
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Swiss by birth, Keller had settled in the Hague by 1726, where he received numerous commissions to decorate both private and public houses with ceiling and chimney pieces, door panels and colourful wall-hangings. His earliest dated works, a series of six mythological scenes are still in situ at the Prinsegracht 6, The Hague. In 1752 he was commissioned by Anna van Hannover, the widow of Stadholder Willem IV, to decorate the first floor of the Stadholder's residence, with no less than twenty-five paintings.¹

Keller primarily specialised in mythological scenes, of which this charming Bacchanal is an excellent example. The subject is a festive in honour of the god of wine, Bacchus. In this wonderfully vivid composition, the god himself, depicted as a naked youth, is wearing a crown of wine leaves and grapes and holding a Thrysus, the ancient fertility symbol. The Menaed, his female devotee, is dancing and beating the tambourine amidst twirling bacchantes and horn players.

1. For this commission and the whereabouts of the eight remaining paintings, see further Ch. Dumas, 'Johann Heinrich Keller (1692-1765)', Delineavit et Sculpsit, no. 29, December 2005, pp. 54-5.