Description
Half a century after the death of the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, his work continued to inspire artists and collectors. Hans Hoffmann was well known for his copies of Dürer’s nature studies, and in 1583 he faithfully copied Dürer’s celebrated drawing of a dead blue roller of 1512 in this exquisite watercolor. A network of very fine brushstrokes imitates the individual plumes of the bird’s underside while simultaneously suggesting an overall soft, downy texture. Several other copies of Dürer's composition exist, including one by Hoffmann in London. Both the London sheet and this sheet were signed with Hoffman’s prominent monogram and dated, indicating that he could not have intended them to pass as originals by the older master. Likely, he meant the drawing as an homage to the greatest German artist of the 1500s; his endeavor may have been sponsored by the Nuremberg-based Imhoff family, who owned Dürer's blue roller around the time this drawing was made.
Provenance
Paul von Praun, 1548-1616, Nuremberg-Bologna (around 1580-1616); Johann Friedrich Frauenholz, 1758-1822, Nuremberg (1801-1822?); Johann Andreas Boerner, 1785-1862, Nuremberg, his sale, Rudolph Weigel Kunst Auction, Leipzig, 28 November 1864, lot 113. (?-1864); Theodor Oswald Weigel, 1812-1881, Leipzig, his sale, Gutekunst Stuttgart, 8 May 1883, no. 444. (around 1864-1883); A. Freiherr von Lanna, Prague, 1836-1909, (Lugt 2773, stamped, verso, center), his sale Gutekunst Stuttgard, 6-11 May, 1910, lot 296: sold to Charles Obach. (around 1883-1910); With Charles Obach, art dealer, London (1910); Henry Oppenheimer, 1859-1932, London, his sale, Christie's London, 10 and 13-14 July, 1936, no. 380: sold to Heinrich Eisemann. (around 1910-1936); Heinrich Eisemann, 1890-1972, Frankfurt-London (1936-around 1946); with Schaeffer Galleries, Inc., New York (1946); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1946-)
Accession Number
1946.217
Medium
watercolor and gouache with touches of gold
Dimensions
Sheet: 29.2 x 16.9 cm (11 1/2 x 6 5/8 in.); Secondary Support: 29.2 x 16.9 cm (11 1/2 x 6 5/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Dudley P. Allen Fund
Tags
Drawing Renaissance (1400–1599) Watercolor Gold Leaf Gouache German
Background & Context
Background Story
Dead Blue Roller from 1583 is attributed to Hans Hoffmann (c. 1530-1592), a Nuremberg painter known for his watercolors of plants and animals that closely follow the manner of Albrecht Durer, whose works were enormously influential in 16th-century Nuremberg. The 1583 date places this 59 years after Durer's death, when Hoffmann was producing watercolors that explicitly invoked Durer's manner, and the Blue Roller (a species of bird) subject follows Durer's famous watercolor studies of the natural world that had established the standard for naturalistic observation in Northern European art.
Cultural Impact
Dead Blue Roller is important in the history of Northern European art because it demonstrates the enduring influence of Durer's manner on 16th-century Nuremberg painting. Hans Hoffmann's explicit invocation of Durer's manner in this watercolor shows that Durer's naturalistic observation remained the standard for Northern European art decades after his death, and the painting demonstrates the continuing vitality of the Durer tradition in Nuremberg.
Why It Matters
Dead Blue Roller is Hoffmann invoking Durer: a bird rendered in watercolor and gouache following the naturalistic manner that Albrecht Durer established as the standard for Northern European art. The 1583 painting shows the enduring influence of Durer's manner on 16th-century Nuremberg painting, 59 years after his death.
