Lot 2259 Dα

The parlour in which the wedding party is held is like a stage, with the bridal pair and the priest in the centre of the picture. Starting from the protagonists, the richly attended wedding party unfolds, characterised by the lifelike depiction of the events, the subtle recording of emotions , but also by the painterly brilliance - Zimmermann effectively contrasts the dimly-lit parlour with the powerful red and light blue dabs of colour gleaming from the costumes, the priest's umbrella or the chair upholstery. Furthermore, the artist has skillfully arranged the numerous participants of the party and captured their various emotions - the seriousness of the priest, the bride's smile, the tense posture of the groom, but also the reactions of the guests, from the quiet happiness of the bride's father and the exuberant rejoicing of the friends to the indifference of the children who do not yet fully grasp the meaning of the celebration and would rather crouch down to feed the dogs.
The painting was created in around 1860, in one of Zimmermann's creative periods in which he was already an esteemed representative of the Munich painting school. From Hagnau on Lake Constance, Zimmermann was not actually intended for a career in art but for that of a merchant. Having decided to become an artist, he studied at the Munich academy under teachers such as Cornelis Schnorr von Carolsfeld. After finally settled in Munich in 1847, he painted his most important works including “Payment Difficulties” (1852), “The Vaccination Room” (1857; Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen) as well as the present work “Wedding in Dachau”.
The provenance of the painting is fascinating, with its depiction of an image that seems so deeply rooted in the regional South German tradition. After it was shown at the Bavarian State Exhibition in Nuremberg in 1882, it was brought to the United States, to New York. There it was displayed in Lüchow's, a restaurant run by the German emigrant August Lüchow in the East Village which existed until the 1980s.