Lot 139: f - HANS MIELICH, MUNICH 1515 - 1573

PORTRAIT OF ANDREAS III REITMOHR OF RATISBONNE, AGED 42

MUNICH 1515 - 1573

measurements note
65 by 50.5 cm.; 25 5/8 by 19 7/8 in.

inscribed, dated and signed with initials upper right: A^o DNI.M.D.LVI.AETATIS/ SUE. 42./ HM (in compendium)

oil on panel, transferred to canvas

NOTE

This portrait has been independantly identified by both Dr. Kurt Löcher and Ludwig Meyer as the long lost pendant to Mielich's portrait of Frau Ursula Fröschl (fig. 1), now in the Staatliche Gemäldesammlungen, Berlin. The source of much debate over the years, the pendant to the Berlin picture was thought by Michaelis to be the portrait of Peter Fröschl von Marzoll und Karlstein in Washington, National Gallery of Art¹, and previously by Löcher to be the portrait of Andreas II Reitmor the Elder, listed as on the New York art market in 1936². The present work is of the same date, the same measurements, and bears the same manner of inscription as that of the Berlin portrait so that there is no doubt that they belong together.

Andreas III Reitmor, the son of Andreas II Reitmor the Elder³, was born in 1513/14 and was married to Frau Ursula Fröschl, born 1520/21⁴, the couple being 42 and 36 respectively when Mielich painted their portraits in 1556. Mielich knew the family, having already painted Andreas II Reitmor at the age of 56, sometime before his death in 1547. It is possible that Andreas III commissioned the present work and that of his wife on the occasion of their wedding.

We are grateful to both Dr. Kurt Löcher and Ludwig Meyer for independently endorsing the attribution to Mielich.

1. See K. Löcher, Hans Mielich, Munich 2002, pp. 209-10, cat. no. 9, reproduced fig. 12.
2. ibid., p. 227, cat. no. 33, reproduced fig. 51.
3. ibid., p. 227, cat. no. 33, reproduced fig. 51.
4. ibid., p. 225-6, cat. no. 31, reproduced fig. 52.