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Shown from the lap up, a young girl with pale, peachy skin and long, light brown hair wears a crimson-red dress with slashed, puffed sleeves and three large, gold-colored necklaces covering much of her chest in this vertical portrait painting. She sits with her body angled slightly to our left and, with her head tipped slightly forward, she looks off in that direction with slate-blue eyes under faint brows. Her long, wavy, golden-brown hair falls from her high forehead and lies loose around her shoulders. Her dress has bands of a floral pattern outlined in a lighter red against a ruby-red background, and the bodice ties with red laces down the front over a white undershirt. The tight-fitting, long sleeves are slashed around the elbows so the white linen shirt can be pulled through to create puffs. Her high-necked chemise has a jeweled band at the neck. The three strings of the distinctive necklace seem to be made of gold-colored strips of fabric or leather made into twisting loops, which are then linked together like a paper chain. Each strip is painted or decorated with a fine, dense lattice pattern and edged in gold. The girl sits with her wrists crossed in her lap against a black background.

Lucas Cranach the Elder

A Princess of Saxony, c. 1517

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 35

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

overall: 43.4 x 34.3 cm (17 1/16 x 13 1/2 in.)

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

Credit Line

Ralph and Mary Booth Collection

Accession Number

1947.6.2

Artists / Makers

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

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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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, Detroit; gift 1947 to NGA.

[1] Julius Böhler, letter of 9 November 1987 to Dr. John Hand, in NGA 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. 17.

1929: Portraits of Women and Children from the 15th to the 20th Centuries, Reinhardt Galleries, New York, 1929.

1939: Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, 1939, no. 61.

1998: A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 14.

2007: Cranach der Ältere, Städel Museum, Frankfurt; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2007-2008, no. 69, repro.

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

Technical Summary

The support consists of a single piece of linden that was cut tangentially.[1] The painting has been cradled. Additional strips of wood approximately 1 cm wide have been attached to the left and right edges and retouched to match the adjoining paint. The painting is in fairly good condition, although there is extensive worm tunneling on the reverse. The face is somewhat abraded, and there is a good deal of thin retouching in the shadows. Scattered throughout are very small retouchings covering losses and abrasion.

[1] Klein, examination report, 29 September 1987, in NGA curatorial files.

Bibliography

1929: "Illustrierte Berichte: New York." Pantheon 3 (1929): 196, repro. 199.

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, 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, Massachusetts, 1936: 37, 91, pl. 19.

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. 46, repro.

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

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: L. J. Roggeveen. "De National Gallery of Art te Washington." Phoenix 4, no. 12 (December 1949): 340, repro. 338.

1949: "Ralph and Mary Booth Bequest in der National Gallery of Art, Washington." Phoebus 2, no. 2 (1949): 71, 75 repro.

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

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: 7, 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): 306, repro.

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, repro. 115

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.

1978: King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 33-34, pl. 13.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 165, no. 180, 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. 440.

1989: Southgate, M. Therese. "The Cover: Lucas Cranach the Elder, A Princess of Saxony." Journal of the American Medical Association 262, no. 1 (7 July 1989): cover, 9, 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. 29.

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.

1999: Beckett, Wendy. My Favorite Things: 75 Works of Art from Around the World. New York, 1999: 20, repro.

2001: Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 88-89, 211, 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.

2011: Nuechterlein, Jeanne. Translating Nature Into Art: Holbein, The Reformation, and Renaissance Rhetoric. University Park, Pennsylvania, 2011: 5-6, fig. 6.