The Artist with his Daughter Gabriel

Franz von Lenbach painted himself with his daughter Gabriel around 1900, producing one of the warmest works in an oeuvre primarily associated with formal commissioned portraiture of statesmen and aristocracy. Lenbach was celebrated for his ability to enter the psychological world of his sitters, and this double portrait of father and young daughter reveals the personal dimension of an artist usually seen in public terms. Now in the Hungarian National Gallery, the work documents Lenbach's later years when domestic subjects offered a counterpoint to his official career.

Lenbach employs his characteristic glazing technique, building warm golden tones that give flesh a translucent glow against a dark ground. The tenderness of the subject is matched by a softening of the tight physiognomic focus typical of his formal portraits, with looser handling around the daughter's figure.