The negress Katherina

Quite by chance the other day I came across an unusual (silver-point) drawing by Dürer, made in 1521 when he was of middle years, of the 20 year old servant of an important Portuguese, then living in Antwerp.

Not a commissioned portrait of an important or rich person, so the clothes, while decent, are not rich either. And the expression, to me, is that of a poised young woman, but a very sad one, particularly in the left hand version.

But a portrait which has, nevertheless, made it to reproduction in small, as a stamp.

The left hand image was taken by my telephone from an art book printed in Germany, presumably from a photograph of the drawing itself, held in the Uffizi in Florence. The right hand image was taken from an art site on the Internet, reference 1. I don't know much about silver-point, but my bet is that the left hand image is closer to the spirit of the original than the right hand image, which I suspect of having been digitally touched up to suit modern taste, used to photographs.

PS: I remember that when I was young, you could walk into museums and ask to see such things, usually kept in folios in chests of drawers rather than hanging on the walls. In any event, you could at the Fitzwillian, under the supervision of the Keeper. I don't suppose that would work at the Uffizi nowadays.

Reference 1: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-negress-katherina-albrecht-durer.html.