18th Century Male Portrait - Balthasar Denner

This captivating and very high quality old master painting depicts a bearded old man. Denner marvellously captured his character and created a portrait with a mesmerising emotional intensity. The eyes of the man seem to be filled with life and wisdom, one wonders what stories he might want to tell us.

Balthasar Denner (15 November 1685 - 14 April 1749) was a highly esteemed painter, most notably known for his incredibly lifelike portrait paintings. Usually Denner concentrated on the face and had the clothes painted by other painters and later by his daughter. 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. When Denner showed a portrait that he had painted of an old woman (which is very similar to the present painting) to his friend and fellow artist, Adriaan Van der Werff, the latter was so impressed that he felt that he could only compare the painting with the Mona Lisa. The painting was later shown to Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor who purchased it for the huge sum of  5875 guilders and later ordered Denner to paint an old man as a counterpiece for the same amount of money. 

Even though the present painting is hundreds of years old, it could at the first glance be mistaken for a photograph, such is its quality and perfection. It's a magnificent example of Denner's skills and very well preserved. As Denner used thin layers of paint to create his lifelike paintings, many of his works have suffered during the course of time and excessive cleaning campaigns, it's very rare to find such a well-preserved work by him, a work that shows why he was so esteemed. A similar painting was sold through Christie's on June 23rd 2015 for 49500 euro (incl. buyers premium).

His works are very hard to find n the market, one of them was exhibited at the distinguished Tefaf art fair in 2020 and two others can be found in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the National Gallery of Denmark.

Signed in the middle to the right edge. The canvas measures ca. 44 by 34 cms and with frame ca 64 by 54 cms.

Provenance; Private French Collection