Live Auction 5962Centuries of Style: Silver, European Ceramics, Portrait Miniatures and Gold Boxes
HEINRICH FRIEDRICH FÜGER (AUSTRIAN, 1751-1818)
Lot 241

HEINRICH FRIEDRICH FÜGER (AUSTRIAN, 1751-1818)

Closed28 November 2012

Price Realised

GBP 18,750

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HEINRICH FRIEDRICH FÜGER (AUSTRIAN, 1751-1818)
Joseph Barth (1746-1818), in silk-lined olive-green cloak, white shirt, wide-brim hat decorated with plumes
signed 'Fu[..]r p' (partly erased, lower left)
on ivory (artist's joins)
oval, 6½ in. (164 mm.) high, gilt-wood easel-stand frame carved with beaded acanthus border

Baron Othon de Bourgoing Collection, Vienna, in 1905 and 1907.
Baroness Eugene de Rothschild; Christie's, London, 23 June 1981, lot 101.

Specialist note

Joseph Barth, opthalmologist, was appointed by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria to occupy the first Chair of Ophthalmology in Europe. He opened a public eye clinic in the General Hospital Vienna in 1784 where he operated on cases of cataracts. He taught and trained other physicians in his field and published works relating to the treatment of eye disease. He was appointed oculist to Emperor Joseph II in 1776, a position he held until his death.
Another portrait of the sitter by Füger, signed and dated 1786, is in R. Keil, op. cit., p. 242, no. 145. According to Leisching (loc. cit.), both versions are 'of equal merit and wonderful and belong to the premier league of his works'.