Jakob Seisenegger, 'Portrait of a Girl', about 1545-50
About the work
Overview
We don't know the identity of this girl, but she surely belonged to an important dynasty. Her large, rounded cheeks suggest that she is still quite young, but nonetheless she’s dressed in a stiff formal outfit: a ruffled collar peeks out from beneath a high-necked net bodice woven in alternating stripes with gold thread and a dark purplish yarn. Her cap is embellished with flowers made of pearls and a red bead, perhaps coral. Her red hair, arranged in a series of tiny neat plaits, pokes out at her temples. The rest of her hair is contained in a net of knitted gold thread, also decorated with pearls. The detailed costume suggests a dating of about 1545–50.
X-ray photography reveals a device (a personal emblem) imitating that of the painter Lucas Cranach the Younger, to whom the picture was once attributed. The panel was probably cut from a larger portrait: Seisenegger rarely worked on such a small scale.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Portrait of a Girl
- Artist
- Jakob Seisenegger
- Artist dates
- 1504/5 - 1567
- Date made
- about 1545-50
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 28.9 × 21.6 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by the Art Fund, 1926
- Inventory number
- NG4206
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Susan Foister, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The German Paintings before 1800’, London 2024; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2014Strange Beauty: Masters of the German RenaissanceThe National Gallery (London)19 February 2014 - 11 May 2014
Bibliography
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1907K. Lange-Tübingen, Verzeichnis der Gemäldesammlung in Kgl. Museum der bildenden Künste zu Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1907
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1927F. Bodmer, 'Vermeer-Stiftung in Edinburgh/Londoner National Gallery', Cicerone, XIX, 1927
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1928D.S. MacColl (ed.), Twenty Five Years of the National Art Collections Fund, 1903-1928, Glasgow 1928
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1936K. Rathe, 'Jakob Seisenegger', in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig 1936
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1959Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The German Schools, London 1959
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1962K. Löcher, Jakob Seisenegger: Hofmaler Kaiser Ferdinands I, Munich 1962
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1993R. White and J. Pilc, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XIV, 1993, pp. 86-94
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1997R. Billinge et al., 'Methods and Materials of Northern European Painting in the National Gallery, 1400-1550', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XVIII, 1997, pp. 6-52
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2024S. Foister, National Gallery Catalogues: The German Paintings before 1800, 2 vols, London 2024
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.