Merchants at the Harbour
Franz de Paula Ferg (1689 - 1740)
Framesize 29.10 x 37.00 x 5.00 cm
His "Merchants at the Harbour" resembles Dutch works in both the landscape and the staffage. A few protagonists grouped in the foreground in front of a ruin are accentuated with heightened colours, such as the centre figure on a richly decorated and heavily laden mount, with a second animal trotting along behind it. This scene takes up some two-thirds of the righthand area, with a narrow path leading to the distant harbour, where traders are going about their business and ships lie at anchor with their wares. The structure of the picture calls to mind works by Nicolaes Berchem and Jan Baptist Weenix, though their paintings are lighter in atmosphere and more elegant in their execution.
Stylistic criteria and Ferg’s journey to the Northern Netherlands around 1720 provide a point of reference for dating the work, which must have been painted before he left for London around 1724.
Habersatter Thomas: Franz de Paula Ferg, Merchants at the Harbour, in: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hrsg./Edi.): von | from 0 auf | to 100. Residenzgalerie Salzburg 1923-2023. Salzburg 2023, S./p. 298-299