Lucas Cranach the Elder (Kronach 1472 - 1553 Weimar), Portrait of a Bearded Young Man

signed upper left with the artist's device of a dragon with spread wings and dated 1518 - oil on linden panel - 16 1/2 by 11 1/8 in.; 42 by 28 cm. Estimate 600,000—800,000 USD

PROVENANCE: Count Dohna, Germany;
R. Zahn, Munich;
His sale, Munich, Galerie Hugo Helbig, November 20, 1917, lot 11;
Marczell von Nemes, Budapest;
With A.S. Drey, Munich, 1921;
Art market, Berlin, 1923
With Van Diemen Galleries, New York, by 1929;
From whom acquired by Samuel Untermeyer, New York, by 1932;
His sale New York, Parke-Bernet, May 10-11, 1940, lot 50, for $2,600, to Charles Sessler;
With Charles Sessler, Philadelphia;
Morris Shapiro, Baltimore;
With Newhouse Galleries, New York;
R. Stanton Avery, Pasadena;
Given by Mr. and Mrs. R. Stanton Avery to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, in 1991 (acc. no. M.91.125.1).

EXHIBITED: New York, Van Diemen Galleries, Exhibition of Paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder, November 18-December 5, 1929, p. 8, no. 22;
Basel, Kunstmuseum, Lukas Cranach: Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik, June 15-September 8, 1974, no. 603;
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, A Decade of Collecting 1965-1975, no. 603.

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES: Der Cicerone, 22, January 1930, p. 31, reproduced, p. 34;
M. J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach, Berlin 1932, p. 50, no. 106;
C. L. Kuhn, A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middles Ages and Renaissance in American Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1936, p. 37, no. 92;
D. Koepplin and T. Falk, Lukas Cranach: Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik, exhibition catalogue Kunstmuseum, Basel, vol. I (1974), reproduced p. 197, color pl. 11 and vol. II (1976), p. 687, no. 603;
M. J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach the Elder, Ithaca 1978, p. 94, no. 125.

CATALOGUE NOTE: During his early years in Vienna, Cranach painted a number of extremely emotive portraits, usually in landscape settings. However, when he went to Wittenberg in the service of Frederick the Wise, he was in quite a different environment. In addition to the living models that he had before him -- members of the court and scholars visiting the recently founded university at Wittenberg -- he also had as models the works of his predecessor Jacopo de' Barbari, who had served Frederick from 1503-06, as well as those of Albrecht Dürer. In responding to these influences, he adopted a more rational and austere style that he followed for most of his career.

The Portrait of a Bearded Young Man is dated 1518, a year after Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses, setting in motion the Protestant Reformation. During the following years much of Cranach's and his patron's energy were taken up with this religious battle, and the artist produced prints and paintings of Luther. For the most part they follow the same typology as this portrait of an unidentied sitter. The artist depicts the young man in half length, against a plain, neutral background. He is turned to the right, a relatively common pose, but one that also suggests that this was possibly intended as part of a portrait diptych, such as The Portrait of Maurice Buchner and The Portrait of Anna Buchner (F.-R. 127 and 128) in the Minneapolis Museum of Art, also from 1518. The poses of the two men are comparable and the sizes of the panels roughly the same as the present work. In fact, as is typical of his portraits from this period, the two male sitters seem somewhat confined by the narrow dimensions of the panels.

Although Cranach's portraits of women betray a certain generic similiarly, his depictions of men are much more individualized. Here he has lavished his full attention on this striking young sitter, with his penetrating blue eyes and prominent cheek bones, and carefully delineates the delicate hairs in his fair, curly beard. In contrast to Maurice Buchner, who stares rather fiercely at the audience, the unknown sitter here appears more inwardly contemplative, gazing off to the right as he stands calmly with his hands folded in front of him. While we do not know the name of the sitter in The Portrait of a Bearded Young Man, Cranach has created a distinct and clearly recognizable personality.

Sotheby's. Important Old Master Paintings, Including European Works of Art. 29 Jan 09. New York www.sothebys.com photo courtesy Sotheby's