Overview
- The postcard-sized portrait, presented Thursday in Dresden, is now on view in the Münzkabinett’s exhibition on Friedrich the Wise and moves to the Sempergalerie in July.
- The work resurfaced in November 2024 when the Cranach Digital Archive flagged a panel sent to a Paris auction house from the Dreyfus family collection.
- SKD negotiated a buyback funded by the Friends association’s 2,500 members, and leaders said the price was well below the painting’s current market value.
- The tiny panel, dated 1533 from Cranach’s workshop, measures about 12.5 by 13.5 centimeters and is prized for fine brushwork visible in details like the fur collar.
- The painting was a wartime loss evacuated in 1940 and last recorded at the Pockau-Lengefeld limestone quarry in May 1945, and its return restores a key image to Dresden’s 67-work Cranach group while the museum still lists about 500 works as war losses.