242 - Peter, Wenzel (1745–1829). Head of a Lioness. Drawing. Ink brush on paper, signed and dated Rome, circa 1783. 13.2 × 17.7 cm.

Peter, Wenzel (1745–1829). Head of a Lioness. Drawing. Ink brush on paper, signed and dated Rome, circa 1783. 13.2 × 17.7 cm. He had actually come to Rome in 1774 to train as a sculptor, but became increasingly interested in painting—and here, primarily in animals as subjects—as Thieme/B. He established himself as an animal painter, although he “nevertheless also produced historical scenes and portraits on the side, not without acclaim” (Joh. Heinr. Meyer). Nagler (in great detail) on Wenzel Peter’s favored animal painting: “Through his tireless studies… he succeeded not only in rendering on canvas the coloring, fur, and musculature unique to each animal, but he also depicted—for the attentive observer—the lynx as restless, the tiger as fierce, and the lion as majestic…“The most distinguished institutions in Europe sought out Peters’ animal paintings; for instance, Prince Borghese commissioned 162 depictions of animals to adorn the entrance hall of the Villa Borghese. – Provenance: Friedrich Johann Lorenz Meyer (1760–1844), writer and last canon of Hamburg Cathedral, a dedicated collector of hand-drawn sketches from the Roman School, who had engraved frames added to the sheets he acquired; the collection was dispersed by later generations of the family; this drawing comes from a remnant of that collection.”