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Shown from the waist up, a young boy with blond hair faces us, wearing an embroidered garment and heavy cloak in this vertical portrait painting. His body angles slightly to our right, but he looks just off to our left with pale blue, faintly bulbous eyes. He has pale skin, flushed cheeks, a delicate nose, a pointed chin, and his pink lips are closed. His wavy hair curls around his shoulders, and a fringe of bangs spans his forehead. A crown of black pearls, gold, and green stones is set at an angle on his head. His high-necked light brown shirt is edged with gold and embroidered with white and gold. The long sleeves are brocaded with a ruby-red floral pattern against darker garnet red. He holds the edge of a caramel-brown, sleeveless overcoat with one pale hand, and the other is cupped with fingers pointing upward just below. He is shown against a black background.

Lucas Cranach the Elder

A Prince of Saxony, c. 1517

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 35

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

overall: 43.7 x 34.4 cm (17 3/16 x 13 9/16 in.)

framed: 58.4 x 48.9 x 4.7 cm (23 x 19 1/4 x 1 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Ralph and Mary Booth Collection

Accession Number

1947.6.1

Artists / Makers

Lucas Cranach the Elder (artist) German, 1472 - 1553

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

(Julius Böhler, Munich, owned jointly with August Salomon, Dresden, through Paul Cassirer, Berlin).[1] purchased August 1925 by Ralph Harman [1873-1931] and Mary Batterman [d. 1951] Booth, Grosse Pointe, Michigan; gift 1947 to NGA.

[1] Julius Böhler, letter of 9 November 1987 to Dr. John Hand, in curatorial files.

Associated Names

Booth, Ralph Harman and Mary Batterman
Booth, Ralph Harman, Mrs.
Böhler, Julius
Galerie Paul Cassirer
Salomon, August

Exhibition History

1926: The Third Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1926, no. 18.

1933: A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 16.

1939: Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, 1939, no. 60.

1998: A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 13.

2007: Cranach der Ältere, Städel Museum, Frankfurt; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2007-2008, no. 68, repro.

2010: Cranach: l'altro Rinascimento a different renaissance, Museo Galleria di Villa Borghese, Rome, 2010-2011, no. 15, repro.

Technical Summary

The painting is executed on a single piece of linden that was cut tangentially.[1] Additional wooden strips approximately 1 cm wide have been attached to the left and right edges and retouched to match the adjoining paint. The reverse, including the cradle, has been coated with a paint, possibly containing lead, that is absolutely opaque to x-radiography. The painting is in good condition. The contour lines around the face have been strengthened, and the paint is thin in the face and in areas of shadow beneath the chin. The shadows in the robe have been reinforced.

[1] The wood was identified as linden (sp. Tilia) by Peter Klein, examination report, 29 September 1987, in NGA curatorial files.

Bibliography

1929: International Studio 94, no. 389 (October 1929): cover, table of contents, color repro.

1932: Friedländer, Max J. and Jakob Rosenberg. Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach. Berlin, 1932: 50, nos. 104-105, repro. (Rev. ed., The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, Amsterdam, 1978: 94, nos. 123-124, color repro.)

1933: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Art in the Century of Progress." The Fine Arts 20, no. 2 (June 1933): repro. 19.

1936: Kuhn, Charles L. A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in American Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1936: 37, 90, pl. 19.

1939: Breuning, Margaret. "Masterpieces of Art." Magazine of Art 32 no. 5 (May 1939): 278, 280, repro.

1939: Craven, Thomas. A Treasury of Art Masterpieces from the Renaissance to the Present Day. New York, 1939: 261-262, pl. 62.

1939: Vaughan, Malcolm. "Old Masters at the Fair." Parnassus 11 no. 5 (May 1939): 10-11, repro.

1943: Posse, Hans. Lucas Cranach d. Ä. Vienna, 1943: 57, no. 45, repro.

1948: "Gifts from the Booth Collection." The Connoisseur 122 (1948): 40.

1948: Louchheim, Aline B. "Children Should Be Seen." Art News Annual 46 (1948): 56-57, repro.

1948: "News of Art and Artists." The Sunday Star (February 1, 1948): C7, repro.

1948: Recent Additions to the Ralph and Mary Booth Collection. Washington, 1948: unpaginated, repro.

1949: "Ralph and Mary Booth Bequest in der National Gallery of Art, Washington." Phoebus 2, no. 2 (1949): 71, 74 repro.

1949: Roggeveen, L. J. "De National Gallery of Art te Washington." Phoenix 4, no. 12 (December 1949): 340.

1950: "Old Masters in America: Important Gifts to the National Gallery, Washington" The Illustrated London News (September 16, 1950): 449, repro.

1951: King, Marian. Portfolio Number 3. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: no. 1, color repro.

1952: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 90, color repro.

1959: Adlow, Dorothy. "A Prince of Saxony, By Lucas Cranach the Elder." Christian Science Monitor (9 May 1959).

1960: Broadley Hugh T. German Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 9 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 28-29, color repro.

1963: Ruhmer, Eberhard. Cranach. Translated from the German by Joan Spencer. London, 1963: 84, nos. 16-17, repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 124, repro. 125.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 33.

1965: Werl, Elisabeth. "Herzogin Elisabeth von Sachsen--die Schwester Landgraf Philipps von Hessen in bildlicher Darstellung?" Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 15 (1965): 31-35, repro.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:114, color repro.

1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 13.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 27, repro.

1973: Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 126.

1974: Koepplin, Dieter. "Zwei Fürstenbildnisse Cranachs von 1509." Pantheon 32 (1974): 29.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 84, 86, repro. 85, 87.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 162, no. 183, 165, no. 186, repro. 163, 164.

1976: Tsuda, Margaret. "A Crown of Flowers." The Christian Science Monitor (March 17, 1976): 28, repro.

1978: King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 33-34, pl. 12.

1979: Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 56-57, pl. 38.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 162, no. 177, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 104, repro.

1985: Snyder, James. Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350-1575. New York, 1985: 374-375, fig. 439.

1989: Southworth, M. Therese. "The Cover: Lucas Cranach the Elder, A Prince of Saxony." Journal of the American Medical Association 262, no. 2 (14 July 1989): cover, 172, color repro.

1993: Hand, John Oliver, with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1993: 27-31, color repro. 28.

1994: "New Publications." Circle Bulletin no. 11 (Spring 1994): unpaginated, repro.

1995: Löcher, Kurt. Review of German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, by John Oliver Hand with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. Kunstchronik 43 no. 1 (January 1995): 15.

2001: Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 90-91, color repro.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 138, no. 104, color repro.