"Bürkel and His Traveling Circuses: A Menagerie Resting in a Barn"

(1802 Pirmasens – 1869 Munich) Menagerie Resting in a Barn

In his series of works, Bürkel explores the theme of wandering people who moved from place to place and traveled to annual fairs with their itinerant circuses and menageries. They offered fantastic performances featuring exotic animals to farmers and townspeople for a small fee, often accompanied by impressive music. Bürkel rarely depicts the performance itself, but rather the difficult journeys of his entourage with animals through mountain passes, idyllically idealized in the mountainous region of Upper Bavaria. In this mature late work from 1867/68, Bürkel returns to the theme in a different form. The traveling circus is no longer on the move, but spends the night in a stable to continue its journey in the morning. Bürkel captures the moment of departure in his narrative depiction. While the bear trainer has already left the stable with his bear and an accompanying monkey, the other circus members are preparing: an old, worn-out horse stands at the manger; next to it sits a dromedary, with a comically dressed monkey sitting on its hump; behind them is another bear; three men lean against a post, one of them occupied with a monkey holding a rifle; to the right, a mother with a child waits for a donkey to be harnessed to a two-wheeled cart. The actual painting can be dated by Bürkel’s meticulously kept sales records, in which he lists several versions of menageries or "barn with bear trainers" from 1867/68. A slightly smaller version, matching in detail, is now located in the Bürkel Gallery in his hometown of Pirmasens. Bürkel likely used a painting by Philips Wouwerman, most likely "Stable with Horses" in the Pinakothek in Munich, as a source of inspiration for the composition. Bürkel’s reputation in the so-called genre landscape still rests on his anecdotal, rural scenes from everyday life, which he sets in the rural surroundings of Upper Bavaria, Tyrol, and Italy. Exhibitions in Munich, Dresden, and Berlin, as well as the World Exhibitions in London in 1862 and Paris in 1867, made him widely known and internationally sought after. Oil on cardboard. Signature. Mentioned in the drawing catalog, number 406.

Provenance: Weinmüller Auction, Munich, 22.11.1971, lot 1234.