Lot 108: Portrait of Queen Anne of Hungary (1503-1547), half-length, seated, in a blue and gold dress

Hans Maler (Ulm c. 1480-c. 1526/9 Schwaz?, Tyrol) Portrait of Queen Anne of Hungary (1503-1547), half-length, seated, in a blue and gold dress inscribed 'ANNA REGINA 1520, Anno Etatis 16' (upper centre) oil on panel 20¼ x 14 7/8 in. (51.5 x 37.8 cm.)

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Germanic Museum of Harvard University, German Paintings of the 15th and 16th Centuries, June-September 1936, no. 18.
Indianapolis, John Herron Art Institute, Holbein and His Contemporaries, 1950, no. 64.
Laren, Singer Memorial Museum, De Kunst van het Verzamelen, 1966, no. 34 (according to a label on the reverse).

S.R. Guggenheim, New York, by 1931, when photographed in Art News, XXIX, 33, 16 May, by whom bequeathed to
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York; Sotheby's, London, 27 June 1962, lot 21.
Dr. A.H. Wetzlar, Amsterdam; Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 9 June 1977, lot 29. Dr. Anton C.R. Dreesmann; Christie's, London, 11 April 2002, lot 57.

Hans Maler's two most important patrons were the Archduke (subsequently Emperor) Ferdinand of Austria - the husband of the present sitter - and the celebrated Fuger banking dynasty. Ferdinand is known to have commissioned at least three further portraits of his wife: in 1520 (Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza), 1521 (Innsbruck, Tiroler Landesmuseum) and 1525 (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie), as well as three self-portraits.

It was through the sitter's marriage to Archduke Ferdinand in May 1521 that Hungary and Bohemia were to pass into the Habsburg Imperial dominions. When Anne's brother, King Louis II was killed in 1526 at the battle of Mohács, Ferdinand acceded through her to the Kingdom of Hungary and Bohemia. In 1558, Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor and on his death was succeeded in the Imperial, Austrian, Hungarian and Bohemian titles by his and Anne's eldest son, Maximillian II. This and the Thyssen picture are the earliest known representations of Anne, and were presumably commissioned to mark her engagement to Ferdinand.