The Lamentation

c. 1515

Hans Baldung Grien

Associated Names
Hans Baldung Grien

Artist, German, 1484/1485 - 1545

The image depicts figures mourning over a deceased figure. The figures are gathered around the central figure, with one standing and raising their hands, while others appear to support the central figure. The background includes a ladder. The emotional intensity is conveyed through the expression and posture of the figures, capturing the solemnity and grief of the scene.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    brush and black ink, heightened with white, on dark brown prepared paper; the surface varnished

  • Credit Line

    Woodner Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 27.2 x 18.3 cm (10 11/16 x 7 3/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1991.182.3

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Koch 1941, no. 37

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Gottfried Winkler [1731-1795], Leipzig; W. Hauth, Frankfurt am Main, 1924; purchased by A. Strölin, Lausanne, 1926; purchased by Ian Woodner (via Galerie de Bayser), New York, July 1983; by inheritance to his daughters, Andrea and Dian Woodner, New York, 1990; gift to NGA, 1991.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1959

  • Hans Baldung Grien, Staatlichen Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, 1959, no. 145.

1985

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1983-85, no. 89 (National Gallery and Fogg Art Museum venues only).

1986

  • Dibujos de los siglos XIV al XX: Colección Woodner, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1986-87, no. 65.

  • Meisterzeichnungen aus Sechs Jahrhunderten: Die Sammlung Ian Woodner, Haus der Kunst, Munich and Vienna, 1986, no. 53.

1987

  • Master Drawings: The Woodner Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1987, no. 52.

1990

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, no. 64.

1995

  • The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995-1996, no. 36.

2006

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006 - 2007.

2007

  • Grünewald et le retable d'Issenheim: Regards sur un chef d'oeuvre, Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar, 2007-2008, cat. no. 48.

2017

  • The Woodner Collections: Master Drawings from Seven Centuries, NGA, 2017.

Bibliography

1924

  • Swarzenski, Georg and Edmund Schilling. Handzeichnungen alter Meister aus deutschen Privatbesitz. Frankfurt am Main, 1924: p. X, no. 5.

1941

  • Koch, K. Die Zeichnungen Hans Baldung Griens. Berlin, 1941.

1942

  • Möhle, Hans. "Carl Koch, Die Zeichnungen Hans Baldung Griens." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 10 (1942): 215, 218.

1959

  • Möhle, Hans. "Hans Baldung Grien zur Karlsruher Baldung-Ausstellung Sommer 1959." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 22 (1959): 125.

1978

  • Bernhard, Marianne. Hans Baldung Grien: Handzeichnungen Druckgraphik. Munich, 1978: 179.

1983

  • Osten, Gert von der. Hans Baldung Grien: Gemälde und Dokumente. Berlin, 1983: 138, under no. 40.

1984

  • de Bayser, Bruno. "Rêves de collectionneur." Connaissance des arts (December 1984): 76, 79.

1995

  • The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995-1996: no. 36.

2000

  • Rasmussen, Mikael Bogh. German Drawings Before 1540. Copenhagen, 2000: under no. 43, fig. 43a.

Inscriptions

by later hand, upper left in black chalk: 1515 (?); illegibly inscribed at upper right in brown ink; by later hand, upper center verso in bromwn ink: Tie hat Jost von kreissen (?) gewerckt u tan / Tie hat / Jost von; by later hand, lower right verso in brown ink: Mein freudlich grü... / zu vor herz lieben in / ich loss dich wissen das ich / fugl[i]ch und noch gesund- / Mein f.

Watermarks

octopus in shield (similar to Briquet 2208-2211)

Wikidata ID

Q64572919

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