Franz Lefler (1831-1898), Monumental Painting with Putti Playing Cards

153.5 x 251.5 cm
Oil on canvas

The artist came from northern Bohemia (born in Langenbruck/Dlouhý Most), studied at academies in Prague and Vienna, and settled in Vienna in 1858. He specialized in cheerful depictions of children and putti in allegorical or decorative compositions to decorate villas and hotels. Stylistically, it belongs to the Neo-Rococo period. On the baroque balustrade, three putti play cards with childlike seriousness. A fourth putto hovering above them throws gold coins at them from a cornucopia. Low vases with flowers standing on pedestals frame the scene. Due to the subject of the painting and its size, the painting could have been used to decorate a casino.