Description

This portrait would have served as a document of a marriage. Friedrich Rorbach’s name, age, and coat of arms, along with the date, are painted on the back of the panel, which was originally paired with a portrait of his wife, Katherina Knoblauchin, now in the National Gallery of Ireland. The two portraits share the same background— a fanciful mountain landscape. Conrad Faber, who worked in Frankfurt-am-Main, specialized in portraits depicting the patrician elite of that prosperous city. In the early 16th century, the energy and self-confidence of the many courts and free cities loosely united in the Holy Roman Empire brought about an artistic flowering in Germany.

Provenance

Henry Farrer to 1866; sold Christie's, London, June 15-16, 1866, no. 288, as by G. Penz, to Bodley for £14 4s. 6d [according to annotated sale cat. at the Getty Research Institute]; by descent to Miss I. A. Bodley of 28 Marlborough Road, Bournemouth by 1930; her sale Sotheby's London, May 14, 1930, no. 32, as German school, sold to Hugo Perls, Berlin [email of March 31, 2005 from Henrietta Roberti, Sotheby’s; it is possible that Goudstikker was a part owner, since he is mentioned as purchaser in the 1938 Worcester catalogue]. J. Rosenbaum, Frankfurt, 1930 [as per Zülch, 1935]. J. Goudstikker Kunsthandel N. V., Amsterdam, by 1935; bought from Goudstikker by Charles Worcester, Chicago, for the Art Institute, in 1935.