Circle of Hans Baldung, called Grien

Believed to have been purchased by the uncle of the present owner in Berlin in the 1920s

The most important student of Albrecht Dürer, Baldung was one of the greatest and most influential artists of his generation.  A native of Nuremberg, he established himself in Strasbourg in 1509, where he married, and set up a flourishing workshop.  By the time the present drawing was executed in 1519, Baldung was at the peak of his powers. 

There are very close stylistic parallels between this drawing and Baldung's best works of this period, such as the magnificent 1518 Head of an Old Man, in the British Museum (see John Rowlands, Drawings by German Artists in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 2 vols., London 1993, cat. no. 65, reproduced vol. II, pl. 42).  The same brown prepared paper, the treatment of fine beard hairs that creates an effect almost like foaming water, the hatched highlighting in the face and around the pupil of the eye, all are very comparable, yet the slightly formulaic and repetitive scalloped shading in the neck, as well as one or two other details, suggest that this may not be the work of Baldung himself.  Yet even if it is not, it is still a very important, exceptionally fine and previously unpublished drawing executed by a highly accomplished artist working in the immediate circle of Baldung.