Johann König Christ and the Samaritan woman at... Lot 1013

Johann König Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well Oil on copper. 23 x 33.5 cm. Signed lower right: Johan: König fec. Provenance Rudolf Doerr Collection. - Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam. - Collection Hinrich Bischoff, Bremen. - North German private collection. Exhibitions On loan to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum until 2006. Literature W. Drost: Adam Elsheimer und sein Kreis, Potsdam 1933, p. 161 (comment on the Berlin variant). - E. Mai (ed.): Das Kabinett des Sammlers, Cologne 1993, pp. 150-152, no. 60, with illus. - A. Tacke: Die deutschen Gemälde des 17. Jahrhunderts: Kritischer Bestandskatalog, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Petersberg 2020, pp. 169-70, with illus. The present painting "Christ and the Samaritan Woman" was probably painted in Augsburg soon after König's return from Rome. Gode Krämer dates the copper panel earlier than a version of the subject "Landscape with Christ and the Samaritan Woman" (fig. 1) in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie (inv. no. 1941), which is dated 1620. In the undated version, "the southern landscape is much more perceptible [...] the ruin is more authentic and corresponds to the distant landscapes, which I would date to around 1614-17." (written communication dated March 19, 2024). The landscape in the distance is executed with light strokes and dots in König's characteristic manner. The story of the encounter between Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-30) is shown rather distantly in the middle ground of the landscape in the Berlin painting. In the present work, the biblical story plays the main role. Jacob's well is placed in the foreground. The woman is listening to Christ's sermon and has forgotten the jug with which she actually wanted to fetch water from the well. The apostles coming from the city approach with astonishment. Both landscapes have an Italian feel. The ruin with its superimposed round arches made of elongated bricks is reminiscent of the rising masonry of a Roman thermal bath complex. König probably used his hand drawings of ancient buildings in Rome as a model. We would like to thank Dr. Gode Krämer for information on cataloguing this lot. He will include the painting in his catalog raisonné of König's paintings. Fig. 1/Ill. 1: Landschaft mit Christus und der Samariterin / Landscape with Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin © XXXX Born in Nuremberg as the son of a goldsmith, König went to Augsburg in 1605 and then spent several years in Venice from 1606. From 1610 he worked in Rome, where he remained until the turn of the year 1613/14. It was probably there that he met Adam Elsheimer, who had died in December 1610 and whose Roman style strongly influenced König's landscapes. König returned to Augsburg in 1614, married and was granted the right to paint in the same year. In 1622 he became head of the painters' guild and a year later a member of the Great Council.