Balthasar Denner

Balthasar Denner began his artistic career as a miniature painter, but later focussed primarily on the depiction of mostly anonymous character heads - so-called tronies. With his fine painting technique, he succeeded in capturing the physiognomic traces of age with exceptional precision - for example in the depiction of the fine, branching wrinkles around the eyes and mouth. There are several versions of both compositions in his own hand, which go back to two paintings that were purchased directly from the artist by the Austrian Emperor Charles VI in 1721 for the exceptionally high sum of 600 ducats. Today, these works can be found in the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna (inv. nos. 675 and 676). Another version of the old woman with a fur-trimmed coat was auctioned at Sotheby's in New York on 4 July 2013 (lot 239) for GBP 22,000.