The sheet of a multi-storey portal architecture shown here testifies to the high compositional and drawing mastery of the Bohemian artist Josef Hager (1726-1781). The depiction of the Madonna with the Child Jesus and a saint (probably St. Luke, who could be represented here with a canvas and a book (Gospel)) sketched in the upper field of the picture possibly indicates a design in an ecclesiastical or monastic context. But perhaps Hager is also alluding here to St. Luke as the patron saint of painters and thus to his self-image as an artist drawing from faith. Hager, who trained under the painter Johann Karl Kowarz in Prague and under the scenographers Antonio d'Agostino and Antonio Galli da Bibiena in Vienna, made a name for himself in the Bohemian and Moravian regions, especially with his late Baroque trompe l'oeil cupolas and illusionist altar architecture. Although only a few altar projects built by Hager are known, he liked to refer to himself as an "architect"; this is also stated in a note on the verso of the drawing.
The Haupt Collection contains a total of six sheets by Hager with illusionist altar architecture, trompe l'oeil cupola designs and fantasy sceneries. These drawings provide an important insight into the historical context of the collection: they are all marked with a note stating that they come from the renowned collection of the Bohemian Count Franz Joseph von Sternberg (1763-1830) - from 1780 “von Sternberg-Manderscheid”. After von Sternbergs death the collection was sold in Prague 1831 and probably the sheets came into the collection of Albrecht Haupt via an intermediate owner.
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