The Alte Frau (The Old Woman)

The Alte Frau or the Old Woman is one of the greatest works of Balthasar Denner, greatest in sense that it was compared with Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa by Adriaen van der Werff (dutch painter and an art theorist). He was impressed with the detailed depiction of the aged face. Balthasar Denner was born in (Altona) Hamburg, Germany in 1685. He was a german painter and was highly regarded as a portraitist. He painted mostly half length and head to shoulder portraits. He was known for the tiniest of the details, specially wrinkles in old beings. Denner was known for making head to shoulder portraits, capturing the ageing of humans in a detailed manner. He captured the same with realism instead of making it into something else. In the portrait, the woman is shown wearing warm and luxurious clothing, including a fur-trimmed garment and a head covering. It's contrast with the heavily wrinkled face, encourages the viewer to think about ageing, the loss of physical beauty and the passage of time. The painting represents one of Denner's major artistic interests which was the realistic depiction of old age. Rather than idealising his subject, he presents the elderly face exactly as it appears, making every wrinkle and imperfection visible.