Drawing of the Month #23
Friday, 1 August 2025. Newsletter 23.
Johann Ulrich Mayr (1630–1704)
Portrait of a woman, c. 1670
Red chalk, black chalk, heightened with white, on blue paper, 300 × 212 mm, Kunstsammlungen & Museen Augsburg, Augsburg, Inv. No. G 4879-73
Gode Krämer, former head of the Graphic Art Collection and the Picture Gallery of the Kunstsammlungen & Museen Augsburg, has kindly chosen our 23rd drawing of the month.
The Grafische Sammlung Augsburg owns two very unusual portraits of a young woman by Johann Ulrich Mayr. Both are of almost the same size, drawn on blue paper in the same technique and clearly depict the same woman. In both drawings, the heads, which are tilted in different directions, are executed with great care and sensitive colouring, while the body and clothing are only hinted at. Both women have their eyes downcast, appearing almost closed. As one of the two sheets is somewhat less elaborate, we have decided in favour of the more mature counterpart presented here. Although the drawing appears finished, it is easy to recognise how Mayr constructed it. The preliminary drawing in black chalk, which defines the light garment and the bonnet on the hair in terms of material and space with very loose, ingeniously simple lines, is reinforced by red chalk in the outline of the face and also in the eyes, mouth and nose. Mayr then adds light and thicker hatching in black and red chalk, blurs them and creates fine, very natural-looking gradations and transitions with this and the heightening applied with white chalk.
Despite the unfinished lower part, it can be assumed that the sheet is a final drawing; on the other hand, there is the second version, which is just as beautifully coloured and only slightly less finished. It is therefore possible that both works were very careful sketches for a painting. This is also supported by the fact that the Graphische Sammlung in Stuttgart holds another related drawing, executed in the same technique - albeit smaller - showing the same woman in profile this time. The inscription at the bottom, which is certainly not by Mayr, also corresponds to those on both Augsburg sheets and probably points to a common origin. The woman in the painting Woman with a Basket of Fruit by Mayr in Frankfurt's Städel Museum looks similar enough to the one depicted in the drawings to identify her as the same person. This becomes particularly clear when looking at the Stuttgart depiction, which shows her in profile: the high arched forehead, the straight nose, the small, firm, round chin and the heavy eyelids match in the drawings and the painting.
Even the striking and enchanting pink colour of the cheeks in the Augsburg drawings can be found in the painting. Neither the drawings nor the painting are dated. Werner Sumowski emphasises the influence of the Swiss painter Joseph Werner (1637-1710), who stayed in Augsburg from 1667-82 and who had married Mayr's sister Susanna here, on the Frankfurt painting. Kaulbach also sees the same influence in his catalogue text for the Stuttgart drawing, so that a date of around 1670 seems reasonable for our drawing.
The drawing is in the exhibition Augsburger Geschmack ("The Augsburg Taste"): Baroque master drawings from the holdings of the art collections at the Kunstsammlungen & Museen Augsburg, Augsburg, through 28 Sep 2025.
