Margarethe Vöhlin [obverse]

1527

Bernhard Strigel

Artist, German, 1460/1461 - 1528

Shown from the waist up, a light-skinned woman sits angled slightly to our right in this vertical portrait painting. The woman has blue eyes, faint brows, and a sloping nose ending in a small bulb. Her upper lip is thin and her lower lip full over a slight double chin. Her blond hair is pulled back under a gold, cap-like headdress and a black, wide-brimmed hat with a shallow crown. She wears a high-necked white, black, and gold dress with intricate detailing, a gold chain necklace that falls to her waist, and a black belt with a gold clasp and medallions. She wears two gold rings set with gems on the pointer finger of her left hand, which is folded across her belly over the other hand. A scarlet-red wallcovering with pink floral designs fills two-thirds of the space behind her. The rightmost third of the background opens onto a landscape with a tall, spindly tree, a leaping animal, presumably a dog, and a bridge across a body of water leading to a town. Across another body of water, perhaps a lake, mountains are marine blue in the distance under a clear, celestial-blue sky.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 35

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Ralph and Mary Booth Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (visible surface, greatest height): 43 × 30 cm (16 15/16 × 11 13/16 in.)
    framed: 50.01 × 37.62 × 5.08 cm (19 11/16 × 14 13/16 × 2 in.)

  • Accession

    1947.6.5.a

Associated Artworks

Margarethe Vöhlin [reverse]

Bernhard Strigel

1527

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably Hans Roth [d. 14 March 1573] and Margarethe Vöhlin [d. 5 July 1582], Memmingen, Augsburg, and Ulm.[1] Manoli Mandelbaum, Berlin; (Julius Böhler, Munich), in January 1922; (Paul Cassirer, Berlin); purchased March 1922 by Ralph Harman [1873-1931] and Mary Batterman [d. 1951] Booth, Detroit;[2] gift 1947 to NGA.
[1] Anton H. Konrad, letter of 5 November 1988 to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files, suggested that the pictures remained in the possession of the Roth family in the Schloss at Reutti (now New-Ulm) until 1890 when bankruptcy forced the dispersal of the collection. Since the Scloss archive is not extant, this proposal remains unverified.
[2] Provenance corroborated by letter of 9 November 1987 from Julius Böhler to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files. See also Böhler inventory card no. 22-149, Getty Research Institute (copy NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1923

  • Ralph H. Booth Loan Collection, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1923, no cat.

1926

  • The Third Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, Detroit Institute of Arts, (Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition from Detroit Private Collections.), 1926, no. 20.

1927

  • The Fifth Loan Exhibition of Old and Modern Masters, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1927, no. 27.

1939

  • Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, 1939, no. 364, repro.

2011

  • Dürer-Cranach-Holbein. Die Entdeckung des Menschen: Das deutsche Porträt um 1500, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, 2011-2012, no. 167, repro. (shown only in Munich).

Bibliography

1923

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Ralph H. Booth Loan Collection." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 4 (1923): 51-52, repro. 54.

1924

  • Poland, Reginald. "Art in Detroit Homes." Art and Archaeology 17 (1924): 111, repro.

1925

  • Parker, Karl Theodor and Walter Hugelshofer. "Bernhardin Strigel als Zeichner." Belvedere 8 (1925): 33, n. 4, fig. 5.

1926

  • Götz, O., Georg Swarzenski, and A. Wolters. Ausstellung von Meisterwerken alter Malerei aus Privatbesitz. Exh. cat. Staedelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, 1926: 70, under no. 201.

1929

  • Mayer, August L. "Bernhard Strigel als Porträtmaler." Pantheon 3 (1929): 1, repro.

1933

  • "A Century of Progress Exhibit List." Art News 31 (27 May 1933): 4.

1934

  • Hugelshofer, Walter. "Ein signiertes Bildnis von Bernhard Strigel." Pantheon 14 (1934): 306.

  • Stange, Alfred. Deutsche Malerei der Gotik. 11 vols. Berlin and Munich, 1934-1961. Munich, 1957: 8:150.

1936

  • Kuhn, Charles L. A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in American Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1936: 63, no. 259, pl. 52.

1948

  • Recent Additions to the Ralph and Mary Booth Collection. Washington, 1948: unpaginated, repro.

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Booth: hand-picking the Renaissance." Art News 47 (March 1948): 37, repro.

1949

  • "Ralph and Mary Booth Bequest in der National Gallery of Art, Washington." Phoebus 2, no. 2 (1949): 71, repro.

1950

  • "Old Masters in America: Important Gifts to the National Gallery, Washington" The Illustrated London News (September 16, 1950): 449, repro.

1959

  • Rettich, Edeltraud. "Bernhard Strigel, Ergänzungen und Berichtigungen zu: Alfred Stange `Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, VIII. Band, Schwaben'." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 22 (1959): 167.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 305, repro.

1964

  • Otto, Gertrud. Bernhard Strigel. Munich and Berlin, 1964: 81, 106-107, no. 87, repro. 78-79 (color), figs. 154-155.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 125.

1967

  • Stange, Alfred. Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer. 3 vols. Munich, 1970: 2:221, no. 966.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 112, repro.

1973

  • Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 126.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 332, repro. 333.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 155, nos. 168-171, repro. 154.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 155, no. 162, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 382, repro.

1990

  • Dülberg, Anjelica. Privatporträts: Geschichte und Ikonologie enier Gattung im 15. und 16 Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1990: 23, 127, 208-209, no. 114-115, figs. 467-470.

1993

  • Hand, John Oliver, with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1993: 167-173, color repro. 168 (repro. of reverse 170).

1995

  • Löcher, Kurt. Review of German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, by John Oliver Hand with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. Kunstchronik 43 no. 1 (January 1995): 19.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 139, no. 106, color repro.

Inscriptions

across bottom edge of engaged frame: Tausen und funfhundert iar (decorative element) Auch siben undzwaintzge das is war (decorative element) / Zallt man, do hett ich zwaintzg iar wol . Am tag Margrethe ich dagen sol (decorative element) (One thousand and five hundred years, with seven and twenty, that is true as men count, then was I full twenty years old on St. Margaret's day, so I should say.)

Wikidata ID

Q20175906

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