![Margarethe Vöhlin [obverse] by Bernhard Strigel](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Redirect/file/Bernhard_Strigel_Bildnis_Margarethe_Rott_geb_V%C3%B6hlin_1527.jpg&width=1200)
Margarethe Vöhlin [obverse]
Bernhard Strigel·1527
Historical Context
Strigel's 1527 portrait of Margarethe Vöhlin forms a pendant to his Hans Roth portrait — the wife's portrait completing the husband's in the standard paired format of German merchant-class portraiture. Vöhlin was likely a member of the prominent Vöhlin family that was one of the leading merchant dynasties of Memmingen, making her a significant figure in the social world that Strigel documented throughout his career. His female portraits show the same precise observation of costume details — the headdress, the jewelry, the dress fabric — that characterized German portraiture's documentary tradition, combined with the psychological directness that marked the best German portraiture of the period.
Technical Analysis
Strigel's oil on panel renders the sitter with the sharp, precise linearity characteristic of his Swabian style, with meticulous attention to the elaborate headdress and costume that signal her social status.
Provenance
Probably Hans Roth [d. 14 March 1573] and Margarethe Vöhlin [d. 5 July 1582], Memmingen, Augsburg, and Ulm.[1] Manoli Mandelbaum, Berlin; (Julius Böhler, Munich), in January 1922; (Paul Cassirer, Berlin); purchased March 1922 by Ralph Harman [1873-1931] and Mary Batterman [d. 1951] Booth, Detroit;[2] gift 1947 to NGA. [1] Anton H. Konrad, letter of 5 November 1988 to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files, suggested that the pictures remained in the possession of the Roth family in the Schloss at Reutti (now New-Ulm) until 1890 when bankruptcy forced the dispersal of the collection. Since the Scloss archive is not extant, this proposal remains unverified. [2] Provenance corroborated by letter of 9 November 1987 from Julius Böhler to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files. See also Böhler inventory card no. 22-149, Getty Research Institute (copy NGA curatorial files).
![Hans Roth [obverse] by Bernhard Strigel](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Redirect/file/Bernhard_Strigel_Bildnis_Hans_Rott_1527.jpg&width=600)
![Hans Roth [reverse] by Bernhard Strigel](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Redirect/file/Bernhard_Strigel_-_Hans_Roth_(reverse)_-_1947.6.4.b_-_National_Gallery_of_Art.jpg&width=600)
![Margarethe Vöhlin [reverse] by Bernhard Strigel](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Redirect/file/Bernhard_Strigel_-_Margarethe_V%C3%B6hlin%2C_Wife_of_Hans_Roth_(reverse)_-_1947.6.5.b_-_National_Gallery_of_Art.jpg&width=600)
