Company in the park

The signed painting shows a merry-making company in a palace park. Set in the park’s background under a tree is a sculpture of Mercury, the messenger of the Gods, wearing winged sandals and hat, and holding a staff entwined by two snakes (the Caduceus). The popularity of paintings with similar subjects of noble companies making music, dancing or conversing, and merry-making in a park or garden, so-called f?tes galantes spread from France (Antoine Watteau). In Vienna, f?tes galantes were painted, for example, by Johann Georg Platzer (1704-1761). The signed painting in the National Gallery Prague’s holdings is dated to 1744 and can be compared to the Tric-Trac Players (Steiermärkisches Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz) dated to 1743 (or 1747?).