GERMAN SCHOOL, 16TH CENTURY

A note on the provenance:
The present portrait once hung amongst the collection at the now-destroyed Schloss Siedelhof at Stotternheim in Erfurt, which passed into the ownership of the von Wangenheim family in the nineteenth century. Ernst Freiherr von Wangenheim joined the entourage of Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, first as Adjutant and later as Court Marshall, before ascending to Ceremonial Master of Emperor Wilhelm I. When Prince Friedrich Karl died in 1885, von Wangenheim accompanied his widow to Italy every winter, where he continued to add to the collection housed at Siedelhof.

Written correspondence between von Wangenheim and Wilhelm von Bode, celebrated art historian and museum curator (dated 10 August 1911), indicates that Bode was considering a possible identification of the sitter as Margarethe, daughter of Protestant reformer Martin Luther, with his successor, Max J. Friedländer.