L.v.Hagn, Portr. of a man

Franz von Lenbach was the most powerful portraitist in Munich during the Wilhelmine era — his portraits of Bismarck (which he produced in extraordinary quantities from a single authoritative series of photographs and sittings) and of the German and Bavarian elite made him both wealthy and influential. His portrait of Ludwig von Hagn (1888) depicts a man in his circle — whether a patron, colleague, or sitter from his social world. Lenbach's approach to portraiture combined technical virtuosity inspired by old master study with a psychological penetration that his powerful sitters found compelling.

Lenbach renders his subject with the tonal authority and old master-inspired technique that was his signature — his study of Rembrandt and Velázquez evident in the handling of shadow, the quality of light on the face, and the psychological directness of his approach. His surfaces have a warmth and depth that academic smoothness lacks, the paint building the face through layered tonal observation rather than flat academic modeling.