Portrait_of_Dürer's_Father_at_70

Portrait of Dürer's Father at 70 (or The Painter's Father) is a 1497 oil-on-lime painting attributed to the German painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer, now in the National Gallery, London. Along with the 1490 Albrecht Dürer the Elder with a Rosary, it is the second of two portraits of the artist's Hungarian father Albrecht Dürer the Elder (1427–1502). The sitter's similarity to the earlier portrait, as well to a 1486 silverpoint drawing believed to be a self-portrait by his father, leave no doubt as to his identity. The London panel is thought to be one of a number of copies of a lost original.: 6  It is in poor condition, having suffered paint loss in the background and in areas of the cloak. It was cleaned in 1955, revealing especial quality in the description of the face, leading some to believe that it is a Dürer original. However this claim is not made by the National Gallery who display it as "attributed to Albrecht Dürer".Although a master goldsmith and well traveled, Albrecht the elder lived in poverty all his life. With his much younger wife Barbara Holper, he fathered 17 children, of which only two reached adulthood. He died in 1502, five years after this portrait was completed. He was supportive of his son's precocious talent and recognised it from an early age, sending him to apprenticeship with Michael Wolgemut, one of the highest regarded painters in Nuremberg at the time. From his travels Albrecht senior came into contact with the second generation of Netherlandish Renaissance painters, and through them passed on a key influence on his son's artistic development.
Dürer painted two portraits of his father, one from April 1490—the month before he left on his travels as a journeyman painter—and Portrait at 70 just after his return home to Nuremberg. Following his father's death the artist wrote an affecting eulogy in which he said that in his life the older man "underwent manifold afflictions, trials and adversities. But he won just praise from all who knew him".