On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Portrait of Matthias Buchinger
Anonymous, British, 18th century British
Sitter Matthias Buchinger German
Not on view
The radiant red of the calligraphic inscription announces the itinerant Buchinger’s sojourn in Amsterdam in 1705. This is the first print signed by Buchinger, who at the time was already thirty-one and married to his first of four wives. It shows the performer wearing a tricorn hat and standing on an ample cushion before an ornate table littered with the objects of his exhibitions: a quill and inkpot, a drawing of a flower, a dulcimer-like instrument (the German hackbrett), and a pair of dice. These objects, along with the rifle leaning against the table, demonstrate Buchinger’s range of skills and reappear in the vignettes in an etching by Elias Baeck.
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