{
"data": {
"id": 124733,
"accession_number": "1946.217",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Dead Blue Roller, 1583. Hans Hoffmann (German, 1545/50\u20131591/92), after Albrecht D\u00fcrer (German, 1471\u20131528). 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",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Dead Blue Roller",
"creation_date": "1583",
"creation_date_earliest": 1583,
"creation_date_latest": 1583,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Germany"
],
"technique": "watercolor and gouache with touches of gold",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "cream(1) laid paper, laid down on cream(1) wove paper",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - German",
"type": "Drawing",
"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.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.292,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 0.169,
"width_inch": 6,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
},
"secondary support": {
"height": 0.292,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 0.169,
"width_inch": 6,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"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.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 361205,
"title": "Watercolors by the Masters: D\u00fcrer to C\u00e9zanne",
"description": "Watercolors by the Masters: D\u00fcrer to C\u00e9zanne. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (May 1-June 15, 1952).",
"opening_date": "1952-05-01T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 300830,
"title": "German Drawings",
"description": "German Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 11-December 18, 1955).",
"opening_date": "1955-11-11T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301689,
"title": "Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries",
"description": "Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960).",
"opening_date": "1960-05-18T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 302279,
"title": "Water Color",
"description": "Water Color. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 6-August 27, 1962).",
"opening_date": "1962-06-06T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304645,
"title": "Drawings",
"description": "Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).",
"opening_date": "1963-01-11T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304714,
"title": "European Watercolors Through the 18th Century",
"description": "European Watercolors Through the 18th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 14-March 22, 1964).",
"opening_date": "1964-01-14T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304414,
"title": "Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism",
"description": "Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980).",
"opening_date": "1980-02-19T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 361362,
"title": "Drawings from the Holy Roman Empire, 1540-1680: A Selection from North American Collections",
"description": "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, Landover, MD (January 27-April 11, 1983); Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA (April 23-June 19, 1983).",
"opening_date": "1982-10-03T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 310012,
"title": "The Magic of Still Life",
"description": "The Magic of Still Life. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 4, 1986-February 1, 1987).",
"opening_date": "1986-11-04T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311734,
"title": "Treasures on Paper",
"description": "Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988).",
"opening_date": "1988-05-10T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311557,
"title": "The German Tradition",
"description": "The German Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 27, 1993).",
"opening_date": "1993-04-27T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 192019,
"title": "Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).",
"opening_date": "2000-08-27T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 204986,
"title": "Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2014-03-09T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Paul von Praun, 1548-1616, Nuremberg-Bologna",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "around 1580-1616",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Johann Friedrich Frauenholz, 1758-1822, Nuremberg",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1801-1822?",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "Johann Andreas Boerner, 1785-1862, Nuremberg, his sale, Rudolph Weigel Kunst Auction, Leipzig, 28 November 1864, lot 113.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1864",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "Theodor Oswald Weigel, 1812-1881, Leipzig, his sale, Gutekunst Stuttgart, 8 May 1883, no. 444.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "around 1864-1883",
"sortorder": 7
},
{
"description": "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.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "around 1883-1910",
"sortorder": 8
},
{
"description": "With Charles Obach, art dealer, London",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1910",
"sortorder": 9
},
{
"description": "Henry Oppenheimer, 1859-1932, London, his sale, Christie's London, 10 and 13-14 July, 1936, no. 380: sold to Heinrich Eisemann.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "around 1910-1936",
"sortorder": 10
},
{
"description": "Heinrich Eisemann, 1890-1972, Frankfurt-London",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1936-around 1946",
"sortorder": 11
},
{
"description": "with Schaeffer Galleries, Inc., New York",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1946",
"sortorder": 12
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1946-",
"sortorder": 13
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This realistic portrait of a dead bird signals a turn toward objective depictions of nature in the 1500s.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Half a century after the death of the German Renaissance artist Albrecht D\u00fcrer, his work continued to inspire artists and collectors. Hans Hoffmann was well known for his copies of D\u00fcrer\u2019s nature studies, and in 1583 he faithfully copied D\u00fcrer\u2019s 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\u2019s underside while simultaneously suggesting an overall soft, downy texture. Several other copies of D\u00fcrer's composition exist, including one by Hoffmann in London. Both the London sheet and this sheet were signed with Hoffman\u2019s 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 D\u00fcrer's blue roller around the time this drawing was made.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79902734"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1946.217-dead-blue-roller"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Weigel, J. A. G. Catalog einer Sammlung von Original-Handzeichnungen der deutschen, holla\u0308ndischen, flandrischen, italienischen, franzo\u0308sischen, spanischen und englischen Schule. Leipzig: T.O. Weigel, 1869.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: cat. no. 50, p. 10",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/catalogeinersamm00weig/page/10/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Winkler, Friedrich. Die Zeichnungen Albrecht Du\u0308rers. Berlin: Deutscher Verein fu\u0308r kunstwissenschaft, 1936.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 3, pp. 59-60, under no. 615",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry S. \"Drawing of a Dead Blue Jay by Hans Hoffmann.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 34, no. 1 (1947): 13-15.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 13-14; reproduced: p. 15",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141332"
},
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry. \"Drawing of a Dead Blue Jay by Hans Hoffmann.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 34, no. 1 (January 1947): 13-14.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 12; Mentioned: p. 14.",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141332"
},
{
"citation": "Kurz, Otto. Fakes: A Handbook for Collectors and Students. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1948.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 97",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Watercolors by the Masters: Du\u0308rer to Ce\u0301zanne. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1952.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: no. 6",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Pilz, Kurt. \"Hans Hoffmann: Ein N\u00fcrnberger D\u00fcrer-Nachahmer aus der 2. H\u00e4lfte des 16. Jahrhunderts.\" Mitteilungen des Vereins f\u00fcr Geschichte der Stadt N\u00fcrnberg 51 (1962), pp. 236-272.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: no. 25, pp. 261-62",
"url": "https://periodika.digitale-sammlungen.de/mvgn/Band_bsb00001014.html"
},
{
"citation": "Koschatzky, Walter and Alice Strobl. Du\u0308rer drawings in the Albertina. Greenwich, Conn: New York Graphic Society, 1972.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 108, under no. 34",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "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": null
},
{
"citation": "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": null
},
{
"citation": "Koreny, Fritz. Albrecht Du\u0308rer and the animal and plant studies of the Renaissance. Boston: Little, Brown, 1988.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 56, fig. 11.1",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Achilles-Syndram, Katrin. Die Kunstsammlung des Paulus Praun: die Inventare von 1616 und 1719. Nu\u0308rnberg: Im Selbstverlag des Stadtrats zu Nu\u0308rnberg, 1994.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 244-45, under no. 355",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Schoch, Rainer, Katrin Achilles-Syndram, and Bernd M. Mayer. Kunst des Sammelns: das Praunsche Kabinett : Meisterwerke von Du\u0308rer bis Carracci. Nu\u0308rnberg: Verlag des Germanischen Nationalmuseums, 1994.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 204, note 6, under no. 69.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "DeGrazia, Diane 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": null
},
{
"citation": "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": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1946.217",
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"date_created": "2009-02-18T18:47:35",
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"creditline": "Dudley P. Allen Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
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"athena_id": 124733,
"creators": [
{
"id": 11623,
"description": "Hans Hoffmann (German, 1545/50\u20131591/92)",
"extent": null,
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"birth_year": "1545",
"death_year": "1592",
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{
"id": 11617,
"description": "Albrecht D\u00fcrer (German, 1471\u20131528)",
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],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1946-07-25T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1583,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1583",
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"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Dead Blue Jay",
"Study of a Dead Blue Jay, after an Albrecht D\u00fcrer Drawing"
],
"is_highlight": true,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:25:58.109000"
}
}