Around 1736 the well-known artist Johann Evangelist Holzer (1709-1740) created a façade painting depicting a tavern scene and a stag hunt for the new residential and inn "Zum Bauerntanz" (today Bauerntanzgäßchen 1) in Augsburg, which was built between 1734 and 1736. The tavern scene with various figures and motifs was realised under the windows of the upper storey of the new building. When the building was rebuilt in 1876, this important example of Baroque Augsburg façade painting disappeared from the cityscape.
A watercoloured and squared pen-and-ink drawing by Holzer of the executed painting is preserved in the Augsburg Graphic Collection. Another, also squared original from the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt is considered lost. Holzer's painting for the Haus zum Bauerntanz found a broad echo among contemporary artists and achieved great popularity especially through the series of copper engravings of Augsburg façade paintings engraved by Johannes Esajas Nilson (1721-1788) around 1765.
Albrecht Haupt acquired the print presented here from the collection of Karl Eduard von Liphart (1808-1891) in 1898. There is much to suggest, however, that this is not a copy but rather a preliminary study by Holzer for the executed painting. There is also a copy of Nilson's engraving in the Haupt Collection, so that differences, especially in detail, can be directly compared. Last but not least, Holzer's loosely executed design shows the high artistic individuality that made him not only one of the most sought-after façade painters in Augsburg but also a highly appreciated painter of altarpieces and ceiling frescoes in southern Germany at a young age.
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