Group Seated Around a Table, n. d.

A group of men has sat down around a table. Using tonal, predominantly gray colors, Hans Canon (1829‒1885) assembled the types of men he had encountered in Dutch Baroque painting, especially in the works of Adriaen van Ostade (1610–1685) and David Teniers (1610–1690). The Old Masters were among Canon’s primary sources of inspiration. The Vienna-born artist had attended the Vienna Academy no longer than one semester, followed by only a few months as Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller’s (1793–1865) private pupil. Canon had his breakthrough in the late 1850s, but in 1861 was forced to leave the country on account of his caricatures of ministers and members of parliament. After years spent in Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and Rome, he returned to Vienna in the mid-1870s. Owing to the support of Crown Prince Rudolf (1858‒1889) and others, Canon established himself as a popular portraitist and decorator.

Text Leopold Museum