Johann Jakob Hartmann

Anonymous sale, London, Phillips, 10 December 1996, lots 47 and 48, where Conversion of St. Paul sold for £55,000 ($90,774) and St. John the Baptist Preaching sold for £50,000 ($82,521);
With Bernheimer Gallery, London;
Where purchased by the present owner in 2007.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This pair of paintings on oversized pieces of copper looks very well and is in very god condition. They should be hung as is in their current frames; no restoration is needed. The copper panels are both flat and the paint layers are stable. When examined under ultraviolet light, one can see very few retouches at all in the composition with the trees positioned on the right. In the composition with trees on the left, there have been losses and subsequent restorations throughout the work. The sky, with the exception of the upper right corner, is free of these restorations. This would suggest that at some point the paint layer has not been stable in this half of the pair. However the existing restoration is good and exhaustive. The paint layer now appears to be stable and should remain so. The conservation is good. There has been no abrasion of any note to either picture. Although the retouches in one picture are quite extensive, there is a brilliance of palette that allows both pictures to read very well.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Johann Jakob Hartmann was an important landscape painter working in Bohemia in the early 18^th century.  He lived in Prague from 1702 where he studied the collections of Rudolph II.  His style and subject matter were strongly influenced  by the works of early Netherlandish painters such as Jan Brueghel the Elder and Gillis van Coninxloo.  His sons, Franz Anton (1694-1728) and Wenzel Johann (1700-1745) were also painters.  A similar pair of paintings, also on unusually large copper plates, depicting landscapes with Christ’s Miraculous Draught of Fishes and Christ’s Encounter with Mary and Martha, were acquired in 2005 by the National Gallery, Prague.¹

1.  On copper plates measuring 33 by 46 in. (83.8 by 116.8 cm.); see sale, Vienna, Dorotheum, 5 October 2005, lot 276.