Johann Wenzel Peter

Originally from Carlsbad, in modern day Czechia, Peter emigrated to Rome in 1774, where he initially practised as a sculptor before turning to painting. By 1812, when he was elected Professore of the Accademia di San Luca, he had achieved a reputation as a painter of animals and counted among his patrons the Earl of Bristol, the Torlonia family and Principe Borghese, for whom he decorated the interior of the Casino of the Villa Borghese.

This rare signed head study of a lioness relates to the artist's monumental Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden preserved in the Musei Vaticani, Vatican City, Rome.¹ The Vatican canvas was acquired by Pope Gregory XVI in 1831, along with fifteen other animals subjects.

¹ C. Pietrangeli, Paintings in the Vatican, Udine 1996, p. 530, no. 531 reproduced.