Surfacing on the market: Dancing in Bavaria

The collection of Max Geiger— a leading figure in the Bavarian financial world who loved atmospheric paintings of the region’s landscapes and rural life—goes under the hammer this month as part of Ketterer Kunst’s Old Masters and Art of the 19th Century sale. The highlight of the auction is Franz von Defregger’s Grossvaters Tanzunterricht (grandfather’s dance lesson) (1872), which is estimated to fetch between €40,000 and €60,000. The oil painting, which depicts an elderly man teaching a young girl—probably his granddaughter—to dance, captures the cheerful atmosphere of an Alpine cabin. Defregger’s earlier oil study of the theme, as well as two similar paintings from the same year, indicate the extensive preparation that went into this work.