Lot 2298 Dα

This work and another altarpiece dated 1872 and made for the church of Dölsach (cat. rais. no. 281) are the only known ecclesiastical works by the painter Franz Defregger. The motifs chosen by this painter, who came from a rural Tyrolean background and trained in Munich as well as on his travels and during a stay in Paris, were mainly Tyrolean peasants and their traditional costume. All the more astonishing, therefore, is the imposing and inspired vision of Our Lady in this large-format painting. It is not known when and on whose commission Defregger created this unusual work. Nor is it known how and from whence it came to the Dominican monastery in Cologne, which was only founded after the Second World War. For the author of Defregger's catalogue raisonné, one of the artist's grandsons, it was only known as an "archive picture".