Lot 113: Josef Melling St. Avold 1724 - 1796 Strasbourg , la baigneuse surprise - a nymph startled by a river god

signed lower right on the wooden branch: Jo Melli... an overdoor, oil on canvas, irregular shape, unlined, in an elaborate carved and gilt wood frame

measurements note 66 by 129.5 cm.; 26 by 51 in.

Josef Melling was a pupil of both Carle van Loo and François Boucher in Paris. We are grateful to Alastair Laing for pointing out that the design of the present work is directly based upon the latter's painting entitled ' La baigneuse suprise' , painted for Madame de Pompadour but now lost, which Melling may have known through Daullé's engraving of 1760. By this date Melling had entered the service of the Margrave Karl Friedrich of Baden at Karlsruhe, where he would stay until his departure for Strasbourg in 1774.