Portrait of a Man in a Hat

Title

[Sotheby's online database; http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/important-old-master-paintings-n08825/lot.102.html?locale=en; accessed 19-03-2019]

Painting on wood

Medium

Painting on wood

[Sotheby's online database; http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/important-old-master-paintings-n08825/lot.102.html?locale=en; accessed 19-03-2019]

The clarity of structure and handling distinguish this portrait as an autograph work by Lucas Cranach the Younger. It is in the field of portraiture that Cranach the Younger most sets himself apart from the works of his father and the older generation of artists. Beginning in the 1540s he forges a style in which clearly articulated features are more fully integrated into the composition as whole. However, he retains an extraordinary refinement of touch, most notable here in the delicate patterning of the lace beneath the sitter's small ruff.

[Sotheby's online database; http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/important-old-master-paintings-n08825/lot.102.html?locale=en; accessed 19-03-2019]

Attribution: Lucas Cranach the Younger

Attribution

Lucas Cranach the Younger

[Sotheby's online database; http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/important-old-master-paintings-n08825/lot.102.html?locale=en; accessed 19-03-2019]

Production date: 1548

Production date

1548

[dated]

Dimensions: Dimensions of support: 52.4 x 43.2 cm

Dimensions

Dimensions of support: 52.4 x 43.2 cm
[Sotheby's online database; http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/important-old-master-paintings-n08825/lot.102.html?locale=en; accessed 19-03-2019]

Signature / Dating: Artist's insignia at top left: serpent with dropped wings, facing left, dated '1548'; in black paint

Signature / Dating

Artist's insignia at top left: serpent with dropped wings, facing left, dated '1548'; in black paint
[cda 2019]

Owner: Private Collection
Repository: Private Collection

CDA ID: PRIVATE_NONE-P256
FR (1978) Nr.: FR-none
Persistent Link: https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P256/

Provenance

Jean Dollfus (1823-1911), Paris
his deceased sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 1-2 April 1912, lot 3, reproduced
Howard Parmelee Eells (1855-1919), Cleveland and Pasadena
by inheritence to his widow, Maud Stager Eells, Cleveland
thence by descent to the next owners
26.01.2012 sold by Sotheby's, New York
[Sotheby's online database; http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/important-old-master-paintings-n08825/lot.102.html?locale=en; accessed 19-03-2019]

Exhibitions

Paris 1885, no. 89 (Louvre, Exposition de tableaux, statues et objets d'art au profit de l'Oeuvre des orphelins d'Alsace-Lorraine)

Research History / Discussion

On the first page of American Art News, vol. XI, no. 7, November 23, 1912, is an illustration of a painting that looks remarkably like the present work, except that the sitter wears an embroidered waistcoat rather than a plain one and there is no date visible in the background. The caption underneath reads 'Portrait of a Man, By Lucas Cranach. Sold by the Henry Reinhardt Galleries to a Western Collector." It is possible that the date was painted over in the Reinhardt painting in order to sell it as a work of Cranach the Elder, but that does not explain the change in the costume. We cannot even be certain that this is the same picture, but we have had the signature and date on the present painting tested and they are contemporary with the rest of the work.

[Sotheby's online database; http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/important-old-master-paintings-n08825/lot.102.html?locale=en; accessed 19-03-2019]

The portrait is in many ways comparable to a Portrait of a Man in the De Young Museum, San Francisco. [US_FAMSF_43-9-3]

[Sotheby's online database; http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/important-old-master-paintings-n08825/lot.102.html?locale=en; accessed 19-03-2019]

Portrait of a Man in a Hat, 1548

Images

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author: <author's name>, 'Portrait of a Man in a Hat', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P256/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author: 'Portrait of a Man in a Hat', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P256/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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