Workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder

Anonymous sale, Cologne, Lempertz, 1895 (catalogue untraced);

Arnold van Buuren, Amsterdam;

His sale ('Collections Arnold van Buuren'), Amsterdam, A. Mak, 27 May 1925, lot 26 (as Lucas Cranach the Elder);

In the collection of the present owner's family before 1945;

Thence by descent.

M. Hofbauer, Corpus Cranach. Lucas Cranach I und Lucas Cranach II. Verzeichnish der Gemälde unter Berücksichtigung von Werkstattumfeld und Epigonen, Heidelberg 2022, p. 363, no. CC-POR-360-015, reproduced (as C1 – Lucas Cranach the Elder or under his workshop).

Sibylle of Cleve (1512–1554) was the daughter of John III, Duke of Cleves and Count of Mark (1490–1539) and his wife Maria of Jülich-Berg (1491–1543). Perhaps more well known was Sibylle's sister Anne (1515–1557), who was the fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England. She later married John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (1503–1554), whose likeness was also captured by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his prolific workshop. This portrait, showing Sibylle in resplendent period dress, also shows the sitter decorated with the motto Alle in ehren, meaning 'All in honour'.

Many workshop versions of this composition are known.¹ The online Lucas Cranach database, which ascribes this painting to Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop, also contains a note that Dieter Koepplin had in 1988 suggested that it may have been created with the participation of Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515–1586).²

¹ Hofbauer 2022, pp. 361–64.

² https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P441#