Joseph Nigg (1782 Vienna - 1863 ibid.) Fruit still life A lavish arrangement of a wicker basket with grapes and vines, figs, hazelnuts, a pumpkin and an orange, depicted extremely realistically, on a stepped stone ground against a neutral background. The large-format sheet is a work typical of Nigg's style, who is considered one of the best Austrian still life painters of the first half of the 19th century. The artist studied at the academy under Johann Baptist Drechsler and specialised in flower pieces. He executed his masterful still lifes in oil, pastel and gouache painting as well as on large-format porcelain plates from the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory, which he showed in many exhibitions from 1824 onwards. Nigg's oil and porcelain paintings can be found in the Lichtenstein Museum, the Belvedere and the Vienna Museum, among others. Gouache/paper. Signed lower right; 42.1 cm x 56.6 cm. Frame. Gouache on paper. Signed.