Kehrer, Carl Christian Miniature portrait of a... Lot 6452

Kehrer, Carl Christian Miniature portrait of a man with a short wig, wearing a jacket, vest and white collar with a frilled jabot, after a portrait by Anton Graff. Inscribed "A. Graff: p." at lower left and signed and dated "C. Kehrer / del. / 1788." at lower right. Silverpoint, wash and lightly heightened with skin color, on card with white ground. D. 8.2 cm as in the image, framed 7.7 cm. In a grooved, brown wooden frame, on the cover cardboard label of the art dealer P. H. Beyer & Sohn, Leipzig, Schulstr. 8. Kehrer, a pupil of the "Hanau Tischbein" Anton Wilhelm Tischbein, worked as a portrait painter at the court of Prince Friedrich Albrecht zu Anhalt-Bernburg in 1783 and was appointed court painter after two years. From 1785 to 1787, he perfected his art in Dresden; his personal relationship with Anton Graff, whom he was allowed to watch at work, probably originated there. He then traveled to Leipzig, where he stayed from the end of 1787 to 1788. From 1788 he took part in the Berlin Academy exhibitions, and from 1793 until his death in 1833 he was a full member of the Prussian Academy of Arts. After a stay in Berlin between 1790 and 1792, he had to return to the princely court in Ballenstedt. Another copy by Kehrer after Anton Graff, a portrait of the poet von Göcking, is mentioned in K. Noack's detailed article on Kehrer in Hans Vollmer (ed.): Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. XX, Leipzig 1927, p. 64. Provenance: Probably Leipzig, Kunsthalle H. P. Beyer & Sohn (Carl Otto Beyer [1870-1948] and Elsa Beyer [1877-1945]), a leading Leipzig art dealer from 1900 until the outbreak of war in 1914.