Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain

The Nativity

Master of the Historia Friderici et Maximiliani · 1507–10

Provenance

Ownership history

Dr. H. C. Krüger, Berlin [letter from Julius Böhler to Ilse Hecht, May 21, 1980, in curatorial file.]. Böhler and Steinmeyer, Lucerne, shortly before 1933 [letter cited abve and another to Ilse Hecht, June 10, 1980, in which Böhler stated that the picture would have been acquired by the firm only one or two years before it was sold to the Art Institute]; sold to the Art Institute, 1933.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Exhibition history

Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1934, no. 1, as attributed to Albrecht Altdorfer.
Art Institute of Chicago, Glad Tidings of Great Joy, 1993–94 (no cat.).

Literature

Published references

Gustav Pauli, “A German Art Critic Visits America,” American-German Review 2, 1 (1935), p. 29 (ill.).
Charles L. Kuhn, A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in American Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1936, pp. 71–72, no. 310, pl. 62.
Otto Benesch, “Donaukunst: Zur Eröffnung der Münchner Altdorfer-Ausstellung,” Österreichische Kunst 9 (1938), pp. 22–23 (ill.).
Otto Benesch, “Die Tafelmalerei des 1. Drittels des 16. Jahrhunderts in Österreich,” in Die bildende Kunst in Ös-terreich, vol. 3, Gotische Zeit, ed. Karl Ginhart, Baden bei Wien, 1938, p. 141; repr. Benesch, Collected Writings, vol. 3, ed. Eva Ben-esch, London, 1972, p. 6.
Ernst Buchner, Albrecht Altdorfer und sein Kreis: Gedächtnisausstellung zum 400. Todesjahr Altdorfers, exh. cat., Munich, Neue Staatsgalerie, Munich, 1938, p. 148, under no. 677.
Frederick A. Sweet, “The Nativity Attributed to Albrecht Aldorfer,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 34 (1940), pp. 2–3 (cover ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections, 1941, p. 28 (ill.).
Regina Shoolman and Charles E. Slatkin, The Enjoyment of Art in America, Philadelphia and New York, 1942, p. 507, pl. 444.
The Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1945, p. 30 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Picture Book: Masterpieces of Painting, XV and XVI Centuries in the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1946, pp. 1, 22–24 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1948, p. 27 (ill.).
Helen Parker, The Christmas Story: Illustrated from the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1949, n.pag. (ill.).

Comparables