id: 124733 accession number: 1946.217 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1946.217 updated: 2019-11-18 10:18:24.572000 Dead Blue Roller, 1583. After Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), Hans Hoffmann (German, 1545/50-1591/92). Watercolor and gouache with touches of gold; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund 1946.217 title: Dead Blue Roller title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1583 creation date earliest: 1583 creation date latest: 1583 current location: creditline: Dudley P. Allen Fund copyright: --- culture: Germany, 16th century technique: watercolor and gouache with touches of gold department: Drawings collection: DR - German type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) - artist * Hans Hoffmann (German, 1545/50-1591/92) - artist --- measurements: 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.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: cream(1) laid paper, laid down on cream(1) wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: signed, lower center, in gray ink: 1583 / [artist's monogram: Hh]; verso, upper left, in ink (?, visible through transmitted light): 182 [sideways]; upper right, in ink (?): 7 [illegible]; center left, in ink (?): 182; lower left, in ink (?): [11?]; lower center, in ink (?): 50; verso of secondary support, lower right, in graphite: 3. translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Watercolors by the Masters: Dürer to Cézanne opening date: 1952-05-01T04:00:00 Watercolors by the Masters: Dürer to Cézanne. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (May 1-June 15, 1952). title: Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries opening date: 1960-05-18T04:00:00 Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960). title: Water Color opening date: 1962-06-06T04:00:00 Water Color. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 6-August 27, 1962). title: Drawings opening date: 1963-01-11T05:00:00 Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963). title: European Watercolors Through the 18th Century opening date: 1964-01-16T05:00:00 European Watercolors Through the 18th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 16-March 22, 1964). title: Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism opening date: 1980-02-19T05:00:00 Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980). title: Drawings from the Holy Roman Empire, 1540-1680: A Selection from North American Collections opening date: 1982-10-03T04:00:00 Drawings from the Holy Roman Empire, 1540-1680: A Selection from North American Collections. Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ (organizer) (October 2-November 21, 1982); National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Landover, MD (January 27-April 11, 1983); Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA (April 23-June 19, 1983). title: The Magic of Still Life opening date: 1986-11-04T05:00:00 The Magic of Still Life. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 4, 1986-March 8, 1987). title: Treasures on Paper opening date: 1988-05-10T04:00:00 Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988). title: The German Tradition opening date: 1993-04-27T04:00:00 The German Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 27, 1993). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). title: Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2014-03-09T00:00:00 Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Paul von Praun, 1548-1616, Nuremberg-Bologna date: around 1580-1616 footnotes: citations: Johann Friedrich Frauenholz, 1758-1822, Nuremberg date: 1801-1822? footnotes: citations: Johann Andreas Boerner, 1785-1862, Nuremberg, his sale, Rudolph Weigel Kunst Auction, Leipzig, 28 November 1864, lot 113. date: ?-1864 footnotes: citations: Theodor Oswald Weigel, 1812-1881, Leipzig, his sale, Gutekunst Stuttgart, 8 May 1883, no. 444. date: around 1864-1883 footnotes: citations: 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. date: around 1883-1910 footnotes: citations: With Charles Obach, art dealer, London date: 1910 footnotes: citations: Henry Oppenheimer, 1859-1932, London, his sale, Christie's London, 10 and 13-14 July, 1936, no. 380: sold to Heinrich Eisemann. date: around 1910-1936 footnotes: citations: Heinrich Eisemann, 1890-1972, Frankfurt-London date: 1936-around 1946 footnotes: citations: with Schaeffer Galleries, Inc., New York date: 1946 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1946- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: This realistic portrait of a dead bird signals a turn toward objective depictions of nature in the 1500s. digital 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. wall description: Half a century after his death, Albrecht Dürer’s work continued to inspire artists and collectors. Well known for his copies of Dürer’s nature studies, Hoffmann 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. Hoffman’s prominent monogram and date indicate he never intended this to pass as an original by the older master: he meant it as an homage to the greatest German artist of the 1500s. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Weigel, Theodor Oswald. Catalog einer Sammlung von Original-Handzeichnungen der deutschen, hollandischen, flandrischen, italienischen, franzosischen, spanischen under englischen Schule gegrundet und binterlassen von J.A.G. Weigel in Leipzig. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 50, p. 10 url: Winkler, Friedrich. Die Zeichnungen Albrecht Dürers. Berlin: Deutscher verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1938. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: vol. 3, pp. 59-60, under no. 615 url: Francis, Henry S. "Drawing of a Dead Blue Jay by Hans Hoffmann." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 34, no. 1 (1947): 13-14. page number: url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25141332. Kurz, Otto. Fakes: A Handbook for Collectors and Students. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1948. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 97 url: Watercolors by the Masters: Dürer to Cézanne. Exh. Cat. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1952. page number: Mentioned: no. 6 url: Pilz, Kurt. Hans Hoffmann: ein Nürnberger Dürer-Nachahmer aus der 2. Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts. Nürnberg: s.n.], 1962. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 62, pp. 261-62 url: Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Walter Koschatzky, and Alice Strobl. Dürer drawings in the Albertina. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1972. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 108, under no. 34 url: Johnson, Mark M. Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 15-16, fig. 8 url: Kaufmann, Thomas DaCosta. Drawings from the Holy Roman Empire, 1540-1680. A Selection from North American Collections. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 26, pp. 88-89 url: Koreny, Fritz. Albrecht Dürer and the animal and plant studies of the Renaissance. Boston: Little, Brown, 1988. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 56, fig. 11.1 url: Achilles-Syndram, Katrin. Die Kunstsammlung des Paulus Praun: die Inventare von 1616 und 1719. Nürnberg: Im Selbstverlag des Stadtrats zu Nürnberg, 1994. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 244-45, under no. 355 url: Schoch, Rainer, Katrin Achilles-Syndram, and Bernd M. Mayer. Kunst des Sammelns: das Praunsche Kabinett : Meisterwerke von Dürer bis Carracci. Nürnberg: Verlag des Germanischen Nationalmuseums, 1994. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 204, note 6, under no. 69. url: Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 62, pp. 154-55, p. 292 url: Dunbar, Burton L., et al. A Corpus of Drawings in Midwestern Collections: Sixteenth-Century. Northern European Drawings. London, England: Harvey Miller, 2012. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 99, pp. 163-65 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1946.217/1946.217_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1946.217/1946.217_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1946.217/1946.217_full.tif