Portrait of a Man

Artist Lucas Cranach the Younger (German, 1515 - 1586)

Formerly attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472 - 1553)

Date1538

MediumOil on wood panel (beech)

DimensionsUnframed: 19 3/4 × 14 1/16 inches (50.17 × 35.72 cm)
Framed: 24 3/4 × 19 7/16 × 1 1/8 inches (62.87 × 49.37 × 2.86 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number31-112

SignedSigned upper left with traces of the artist's heraldic device and dated 1538.

On View

Not on view

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionPortrait of man turned a little to the right; dressed in costume of black velvet, with shirt of white batiste. He wears a large, black velvet beret. He has a thick mustache and a brown beard. He is represented with his hands joined at with a look of meditation. The background in turquoise blue.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Masterpiece of the Week, The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, MO, March 22, 1936, no cat.

Seventh Anniversary Exhibition of German, Flemish and Dutch Painting, The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, MO, December 1940-January 1941, no. 13.

A Loan Exhibition of Fashion in Headdress, 1450-1943, Wildenstein Galleries, New York, April 27-May 27, 1943, no. 16.

Origins: Collecting to Create the Nelson-Atkins, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, August 14, 2021-March 6, 2022.

Provenance

Marczell von Nemes (1866-1930), Munich, by 1930;

Purchased at his posthumous sale, Sammlung Marczell von Nemes, Frederik Müller and Co., Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Munich, June 16, 1931, lot 72, as by Lucas Cranach the Elder, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931.

Published References

Sammlung Marczell von Nemes, vol. 1, Gemälde des XIV. bis XIX. Jahrhunderts (Munich, June 16-19, 1931), 45, 54, (repro.), as by Lucas Cranach the Elder, with certificate of authentication by Max J. Friedländer.

Max J. Friedländer, “Zur Auktion der Sammlung M. V. Nemes,” Pantheon 7 (1931): 142, 144, (repro.), as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

“Four Old Masters for Collection in Kansas City,” Art News 30, no. 18 (January 30, 1932): 10, 12, (repro.).

Max J. Friedlander and Jakob Rosenberg, Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach (Berlin: Deutscher Verein Für Kunstwissenschaft, 1932), no. 334, p. 91, (repro.), as by Lucas Cranach the Younger.

Alfred M. Frankfurter, “Paintings in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art,” in “The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City Special Number,” Art News 32, no. 10 (December 9, 1933): 29-30, (repro.), as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 24-5, (repro.), as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

News Flashes (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 2, no. 8 (March 1936): 3, as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Charles Louis Kuhn, A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in American Collections (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936), 44, 102, as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Seventh Anniversary Exhibition of German, Flemish and Dutch Painting, exh. cat. (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1940), 17, as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

“Special Exhibitions,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 7, no. 3, (December 1940): 1, as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

“Gallery Changes,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 7, no. 6 (March 1941): 6, as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2^nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 56, 59, 168, (repro.), as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Georges de Batz, A Loan Exhibition of Fashion in Headdress, 1450-1943, exh. cat. (New York: Wildenstein Galleries, 1943), unpaginated, (repro.), as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

R. Turner Wilcox, The Mode in Hats and Headdress: A Historical Survey with 198 plates (Mineola, NY: Dover, 2008), 87, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 74, (repro.), as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

“Recent Acquisition,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 14, no. 8 (May 1957): unpaginated, as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 74, 261, (repro.), as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 101, 259, (repro.), as by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Max J. Friedländer, and Jakob Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, trans Heinz Norden and Ronald Taylor, rev. ed. (London: Sotheby, Parke Bernet, 1978), 153, 199, (repro.).

John D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America (New York: Abbeville, 1979), 84.

“Damage Minor,” Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Summer 1990): unpaginated.

Mary Sanchez and Connie Bye, “Nightmare at Nelson Gallery: Worse damage,” Kansas City Star (June 16, 1990): B-1, B-5.

Amy Snider, Angie Scharnhorst, and Mary Sanchez, “Works defaced at Nelson,” Kansas City Star (June 16, 1990): A-1, A-16.

Burton L. Dunbar, The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: German and Netherlandish Paintings, 1450-1600 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2005), 9, 13, 29, 30-31, 89-96, (repro.).

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