The Gallant Aide

In 1785, the year this small copper panel was painted, Emperor Joseph II bought it for the imperial picture gallery. The gallery was then housed in the Upper Belvedere, the palace where the painting hangs today. It had opened to the public in 1781, rearranged by Christian von Mechel, an engraver and art dealer from Basel. Braun's scene looks back more than a century, to Dutch interiors of the 1600s. A young man in a lace collar leans over a woman in pale satin, and the two hold a thread between their fingers, with a basket of wool on the table. Around them are the trappings of a comfortable house, a glass chandelier, a patterned carpet thrown over the table, and a clock under a glass dome. A small dog bounds towards the couple. Braun signed and dated it in the lower right.