Lot 1116 Dα

In the year 1759, the court calendar of Clemens August (1700-1761), the Elector of Cologne, mentions one "Painter of fruit N. Metz" among the court painters. This N. Metz, author of the present work, was one of the most distinguished Rhenish still life painters of the 18th century. Johann Martin Metz had probably already worked for Clemens August in the 1740s during the furnishing of Augustusburg Palace in Brühl, and in 1753 he is known to have carried out the (now lost) painted decoration of the Buen-Retiro wing of the Electoral residence in Bonn. He probably also worked for numerous other aristocratic families in the Rhineland, and was active in London for a short period in 1781.