Johann Wenzel Peter (Karlovy Vary 1745 – 1829 Rome), was an animal painter who worked in Rome. Born the son of a weaponsmith, he started out learning his father’s craft at home. His apprenticeship years took him to Brno, where he produced his masterpiece, a pistol. He then moved on to Vienna, where he worked as a coin die engraver. The patronage of Count Joseph von Kaunitz, the Austrian ambassador to the papal court, allowed Peter to journey to Rome in 1774 to study sculpture. However, under the influence of Anton Raphael Mengs, he developed a greater fascination with the art of painting in 1781, and went on to specialise in animal subjects.

In 1784/85, at the request of Prince Borghese, Peter decorated the entrance hall to the casino at Villa Borghese with 162 animal figures and produced various other paintings for the casino’s collection. He also painted animal figures for the Chigi and Altieri palazzos, and created works for the banker Alessandro Torlonia and Lord Bristol. He was appointed professor at the Accademia di San Luca in 1812.

In 1831, Pope Gregorius XVI purchased twenty paintings from Johann Wenzel Peter to decorate the Sala del Concistoro in the Papal Palace (now in the Vatican Pinacoteca). These included Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and A Lion and Tiger in Combat. These paintings form the largest coherent collection of works by Peter.

The portrait of a lioness shown here is a study for the large painting of Adam and Eve in Paradise that Pope Gregorius XVI purchased from him in 1831. Said painting, which depicts more than 200 animals, demonstrates Peter’s exceptional ability to portray the animal kingdom in a way that is both attractive and true to nature, as well as his anatomical knowledge, which is immediately apparent. He combines a genuine feeling for nature with the appealing qualities of bold and magnificent technique and brilliant colours.

Several studies are known of animals that feature on the painting. Peter worked up a number of these studies more than once, such as this lioness portrait, a very similar version of which was sold at Sotheby’s as lot 161 on 7 July 2022.

Johann Wenzel Peter (1745-1829), study of a lioness

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