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Portrait of a Man
Hans Leonard Schäufelein·c. 1507
Historical Context
Hans Leonard Schäufelein was a German painter and graphic artist from Nördlingen who trained in the workshop of Albrecht Dürer and became one of the most important disseminators of Dürer's innovations in Upper Germany and the Danube region. This ca. 1507 Portrait of a Man belongs to his early career, painted during or shortly after his Dürer training, and it reflects the German portrait tradition's emphasis on individual physiognomy and psychological truth over idealisation. The three-quarter pose, dark costume, and direct gaze follow the conventions established by Dürer and Hans Holbein the Elder, but Schäufelein brings his own more rustic, forceful quality to the sitter's characterisation. The work documents the spread of the Dürer workshop's portrait conventions to the provincial centres of southern Germany in the first decade of the sixteenth century.
Technical Analysis
Schäufelein's Dürer training is evident in the precise drawing of the features and the careful attention to the sitter's individual physiognomy — no flattery, just honest observation of a particular face. The handling is firm and linear rather than painterly, reflecting the graphic tradition of the Nuremberg workshop.
Provenance
Supposedly purchased in Germany, c. 1750, by Pehr von Lagerbring [d. 1799], Sweden; sold to David Henric Hildebrand [d. 1791], Castle Ericsberg, Katrineholm, by 1770 or 1771; by descent to his son, David Gotthard Henric Hildebrand [d. 1808]; his grandson, Carl Carlsson Bonde, Castle Ericsberg, as part of the "Fideikommiss;" by descent to Carl Gotthard Carlsson Bonde, Castle Ericsberg. (Galerie Matthiesen, Berlin, 1927).[1] (P. & D. Colnaghi and Co., London and New York, 1927); (M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1928, owned jointly with Galerie Matthiesen and P. & D. Colnaghi and Co.);[2] purchased 1928 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 30 March 1932 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 19937 to NGA. [1] This and the preceding information is corroborated by Carl Jedvard Carlsson Bonde, son of Carl Gotthard Carlsson Bonde, letter of 15 June 1976 and postcard of 16 September 1976 to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files. This information, in slightly altered form, is contained in an M. Knoedler & Co. brochure of 1928, in NGA curatorial files. John Hand also acknowledges Göran Galkenberg, stockholm, conversation of 30 October 1989, and Carl Göran Carlsson Bonde, Castle Ericsberg, for information on the Bonde family. [2] Report of 8 March 1988 from the Getty Provenance Index, in NGA curatorial files.
