Portrait of Fridrich Rorbach

1532

Conrad Faber von Creuznach (German, c. 1500–by 1553)

This portrait would have served as a document of a marriage. Friedrich Rorbach’s name, age, and coat of arms, along with the date, are painted on the back of the panel, which was originally paired with a portrait of his wife, Katherina Knoblauchin, now in the National Gallery of Ireland. The two portraits share the same background— a fanciful mountain landscape. Conrad Faber, who worked in Frankfurt-am-Main, specialized in portraits depicting the patrician elite of that prosperous city. In the early 16th century, the energy and self-confidence of the many courts and free cities loosely united in the Holy Roman Empire brought about an artistic flowering in Germany.

Status: On View, Gallery 238
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Conrad Faber
Title: Portrait of Fridrich Rorbach
Place: Germany (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1532
Medium: Oil on panel
Inscriptions: Inscribed verso: FRIDERICH RORBACH SEINES ALTERS XXV-M.D. XXXII
Dimensions: 50.4 × 35.7 cm (19 7/8 × 14 1/16 in.); Framed: 68.3 × 53.5 cm (26 7/8 × 21 1/16 in.)
Credit Line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
Reference Number: 1935.296
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/21672/manifest.json

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Daniel Catton Rich, Catalogue of the Charles H. and Mary F. Worcester Collection (Chicago, 1938), no. 39.
Oswald Goetz, “The Portrait of Friedrich Rohrbach by Conrad Faber of Creuznach,” Art in America 29 (1941), pp. 89-97, figs. 1,5.
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Henry Farrer to 1866; sold Christie’s, London, June 15-16, 1866, no. 288, as by G. Penz, to Bodley for £14 4s. 6d [according to annotated sale cat. at the Getty Research Institute]; by descent to Miss I. A. Bodley of 28 Marlborough Road, Bournemouth by 1930; her sale Sotheby’s London, May 14, 1930, no. 32, as German school, sold to Hugo Perls, Berlin [email of March 31, 2005 from Henrietta Roberti, Sotheby’s; it is possible that Goudstikker was a part owner, since he is mentioned as purchaser in the 1938 Worcester catalogue]. J. Rosenbaum, Frankfurt, 1930 [as per Zülch, 1935]. J. Goudstikker Kunsthandel N. V., Amsterdam, by 1935; bought from Goudstikker by Charles Worcester, Chicago, for the Art Institute, in 1935.

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