Late 18th-early 19th century AD. An oil-on-canvas painting in the German Romantic style depicting a dark woodland scene with a cave and a group of resplendent figures: on a grassy knoll strewn with roses a matron reclines supine wearing a white linen shift at the waist and a pink mantle to the neck, the arms lifted exposing bare upper torso and hair gathered in a chignon with blue ribbons; standing matron inclining towards her companion, wearing a pink gown with exposed shoulder and breast, cradling a newborn baby in her arms and offering it forward; the figures illuminated by a rose-tinted light emanating from behind the standing figure; signed to the lower left corner 'G M Kraus' on an angled rock; handwritten note to the reverse 'Kraus von Weimar / [....] beide SH [..]/ NH'. For an assessment of Krause's work and life, see Birgit Knorr: Georg Melchior Kraus (1737 - 1806): Maler - Pädagoge - Unternehmer; Biographie und Werkverzeichnis. 871 grams, 64.5 x 50.5cm (25 1/2 x 20"). From a London collection; previously acquired on the UK art market in the 1980s. Georg Melchior Kraus (26 July 1737, in Frankfurt am Main – 5 November 1806, in Weimar) was a German painter and teacher, a friend of Goethe. He was a co-founder of the Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule Weimar (Weimar Princely Free Drawing School) with Friedrich Justin Bertuch in 1776. Fine condition.