Allegory of spring
Vincenz Janke, Northern Bohemia, first third 19th C.
Glass panel painted on reverse in opaque and transparent pigments against black ground. Unsigned. Softwood frame gilded over red bole, H 26.7, W 19 cm.
This reverse glass painter based his work on the sheet "Terra" by the Augsburg engraver and publisher Martin Engelbrecht (1684 - 1756), whereby he only reproduced the gentleman with the rose, but not the lady to whom he was presenting it.
Vincenz Janke, born in 1769 in the Bohemian town of Langenau, today České Lípy, was one of the most important representatives of reverse glass painting of his time. Langenau belonged to the dominion of the Counts Kinski, who promoted craftsmen and artists on a grand scale, sending them to the artistic metropolises of Prague, Vienna, Augsburg or Nuremberg for training. Whether Janke received such support is not known. But we do know that Janke worked for the mirror factory in Hurkenthal, today Nová Hůrka, which supplied international customers. From 1803 at the latest, Janke settled in Haida, today Nový Bor, where he also died in 1838. According to the latest findings, he maintained a workshop there, where his two daughters and his brother also practised reverse glass painting. Today, about 200 reverse glass paintings are attributed to Janke and his workshop.
Provenance
Art market, Vienna.
Literature
Illus. in Steiner, Hinterglas und Kupferstich. Hinterglasgemälde und ihre Vorlagen 1550 - 1850, München 2004, p. 96 f.
Illus. in Steiner, „Kein Hayde in Augsburg", in: Weltkunst 15/2006, p. 39.
Illus. in Kafka/Krámská/Steiner/Trepesch, Vincenz Janke 1769 - 1838 Podmalby na skle / Hinterglasbilder, Liberec 2017, p. 148.
For more on Janke see also https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325974854_Vincenz_Janke_1769-1838_malir_na_pomezi_vysokeho_umeni_a_zlidovele_produkce: The Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences v.v.i.
Exhibitions
2005 - 2006 "Eleganz in Glanz", Barockmuseum Salzburg.
2012 Schaezlerpalais der Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg.
2017 North Bohemian Museum Liberec.