Balthasar Denner

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Balthasar Denner self-portrait, 1719
National Museum in Warsaw
).
George Frideric Handel in 1727 attributed to Denner.[1]

Balthasar Denner (15 November 1685 – 14 April 1749) was a German painter, highly regarded as a portraitist.[2] He painted mostly half-length and head-and-shoulders portraits and a few group portraits of families in interiors.[3] Usually Denner concentrated on the face; clothes and paraphernalia were done by other painters or later his daughter.[4] His chief peculiarity consisted in the fineness of his mechanical finish, which extended to depicting even the almost invisible furze of hair growing on smooth skin. He is particularly noted for his heads of old men and women.[5]

Life

Denner was born in the city of

Danzig, where Denner practiced oil painting between 1698 and 1700.[3]
In 1701 the family moved back to the
Hanseatic town. Balthasar became a clerk for his uncle, who was a merchant. In 1707 he became a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts
in Berlin.

Denner began his career as a painter of

Great Nordic War; in 1714 he made a trip to Amsterdam; in 1715 to London; in 1717 to Copenhagen. In 1720 he visited the court in Wolfenbüttel
and Hanover.

Portrait of an Old Woman

Portrait of an Old Woman

While in Hanover, Denner was invited to England, but first he met with Adriaen van der Werff, and showed him his painting of an old woman. Van der Werff was impressed and could only compare the painting with the Mona Lisa.[7] Also in London the painting caused great excitement and it was sent to Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor.[9] Denner received 5875 guilders and in 1725 he was ordered to paint an old man as a counterpiece for the same amount of money. In 1728 he left London because of the smog and sailed to Hamburg.

After London

In 1729 he visited the court in

Christian Ludwig II, Duke of Mecklenburg in Schwerin
. He moved there in 1736 and painted the wealthy Dutch banker
Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden
. Around 1745 he lived in Altona again, where three of his children were buried. Denner was in grief and did not paint for one year.

When he died, aged 63, in

Johan van Gool, and had sent him his biography.[4]

In 1837 a Swiss painter fooled the Louvre experts with Head of an old woman wearing a bonnet.[10]

His works are held in numerous public collections including at the Louvre Museum, the US National Gallery of Arts, State Hermitage, the museum, located in Saint Petersburg, Tate Britain, the British Museum, the Royal Collection Trust, UK National Portrait Gallery, V&A and the Rijksmuseum.

See also

References

Denner's portrait of British soldier-statesman James Stanhope (1673–1721), detail, oil-on-canvas.
  1. ^ George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) Composer see: Portrait #3, Balthasar Denner, 1727 www.artexpertswebsite.comArchived 6 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Grove Art Online, GARAS, Klara: 'Denner's genre figures and character heads depicting wrinkled old women and men were particularly popular and were admired for their detailed execution and meticulous accuracy. They ensured the artist international success and attracted especially high fees: Emperor Charles VI of Austria is believed to have sent 600 ducats from Vienna in payment for a typical head of a woman, an extraordinary sum at that time.'
  3. ^ a b Grove Art Online, GARAS, Klara:'Denner, Balthasar'
  4. ^ a b "Biography in Dutch". Inghist.nl. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  5. New International Encyclopedia
    (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  6. ^ "Denner, Jakob (1659-1746)". GAMEO. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  7. ^ a b c d Balthasar Denner (1685-1749) portrait artist www.mennonitehistorian.ca, accessed 16 December 2020
  8. ^ Peter Prange: Deutsche Zeichnungen: 1450 - 1800 : Zeichnungen aus dem Kupferstichkabinett ... books.google.com
  9. ^ "KHM Bilddatenbank — KHM Bilddatenbank". Bilddatenbank.khm.at. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  10. ^ "Un faux Balthasar Denner: Tête de vieille femme au bonnet, ou le Louvre trompé par un faussaire en 1837" (PDF). Louvre.fr. Retrieved 18 May 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Balthasar Denner.
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