Lot 47: Portrait of Ludwig von der Pfalz (1502-1532), Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, small half-length in a fur collar and hat; and Portrait of Elisabeth von Hessen (1503-1563), small half-length with a fur collar and headdress

Peter Gertner (c. 1495/1500-after 1541 Nuremberg) Portrait of Ludwig von der Pfalz (1502-1532), Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, small half-length in a fur collar and hat; and Portrait of Elisabeth von Hessen (1503-1563), small half-length with a fur collar and headdress the first inscribed 'Pfaltzgraff Lud... zu Zweÿ Brüken' (upper left), the second inscribed 'Pfaltzgraff Ludwigs zu Zweÿ Brüken gemahln' (upper left) black lead, pen and ink, and watercolour with bodycolour on vellum laid down on board 18 3/8 x 13 in. (46.9 x 33 cm) a pair (2)

Fürst Leopold I von Anhalt-Dessau.
with Charles A. de Burlet, Berlin, 1931.

Peter Gertner (whose signature was the monogram 'pg' with a gardener's spade) was made a citizen of Nuremberg on 12 January 1521. Like the artist Wolf Traut, under whom he is thought to have studied, Gertner used an austere graphic line and dry, bright colours. In 1527, he painted a memorial portrait of Kasimir, Markgraf zu Brandenburg-Kulmbach, Burgrave of Nuremberg and his wife Susanna (untraced); it was through Susanna's second marriage to Ottheinrich von der Pfalz, the future Elector Palatine, that Gertner moved to the court of Neuberg an der Donau. It was during his stay here from 1530-9 that he painted Ottheinrich and other members of the house of Wittelsbach. Indeed inventories at Neuberg indicate that these portraits were painted in 1532 (see Löcher, op. cit., p. 131, note 191).

While Gertner also painted religious works such as the Crucifixion (1537; Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery) he is chiefly known for his court portraits that are fascinating for their precise rendition of clothes and jewellry. These portraits, such as the present lot and the Portrait of Ottheinrich von der Pfalz (Christie's, New York, 6 April, 2006, lot 15, $553,000) were prepared by adding colour to pen and ink drawings. Pictorially complete modelli, painted on vellum, they served the studio as a basis for producing replicas. The present pair of paintings would appear to be modelli for a lost group portrait of Ludwig II zu Zweibrücken and his family, a copy of which is in Bayerisches National Museum, Munich (ibid., p. 97, fig. 56).

Ludwig von der Pfalz married Anne of Hessen in 1525, having succeeded his father, Alexander, in 1514. On his death in 1532, and while his son Wolfgang was still a minor, the regency of the Palatinate-Zweibrücken passed to Ludwig's younger brother Rupert until 1543.