Unknown Renaissance Drawing by Hans Baldung Grien to be auctioned at Drouot
Thursday, January 15, 2026
Beaussant Lefèvre & Associés will offer at auction at Hôtel Drouot on Monday, 23 March 2026, a previously unknown work by Hans Baldung Grien (1484/85–1545), one of the greatest masters of the Renaissance.
Executed in silverpoint on paper prepared with bone dust—a technique prized by Renaissance virtuosos—this drawing has remained in the family of the model, Susanna Pfeffinger (1465–1538), for over 500 years, passed down from generation to generation. It is the only silverpoint drawing still privately held. Indeed, only a handful of Baldung’s drawings remain in private collections, out of approximately 250 recorded works.Of identical technique, it is closely related to those gathered in the renowned Karlsruhe collection preserved at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (das "Karlsruher Skizzenbuch"), with the added distinction of being signed with the artist’s original monogram.Born in Germany, Hans Baldung Grien began his artistic career in Dürer’s workshop in Nuremberg, gaining the trust of his master to the point of taking over the workshop. But it was in Strasbourg, from 1509 onwards, that he settled and flourished.
Having absorbed all the techniques and artistic vocabulary of the Nuremberg master, Baldung rapidly developed an original oeuvre, with a strong interest in death, eroticism, witchcraft, and the passage of time. He had the genius to invent fresh interpretations of traditional subjects. A free spirit with a fertile imagination, his vision of women—both powerful and erotic—was unmatched in his time, and the extraordinarily meticulous and intricate entanglements of the female form appear almost surreal in an era when the Catholic Church, struggling with the emerging Protestant schism, stifled natural expression. Baldung is an artist who defies categorisation, yet his influence was considerable.
His deeply human portraits, virtuoso drawings, engravings, sumptuous stained glass, and large-scale altarpieces continue to impress. From 30 November 2019 to 8 March 2020, a major retrospective was dedicated to him in Karlsruhe, Germany, alongside exhibitions in Strasbourg and Freiburg im Breisgau. A significant exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Yale, in the United States also showcased numerous drawings and prints in 1981.
Having absorbed all the techniques and artistic vocabulary of the Nuremberg master, Baldung rapidly developed an original oeuvre, with a strong interest in death, eroticism, witchcraft, and the passage of time. He had the genius to invent fresh interpretations of traditional subjects. A free spirit with a fertile imagination, his vision of women—both powerful and erotic—was unmatched in his time, and the extraordinarily meticulous and intricate entanglements of the female form appear almost surreal in an era when the Catholic Church, struggling with the emerging Protestant schism, stifled natural expression. Baldung is an artist who defies categorisation, yet his influence was considerable.
His deeply human portraits, virtuoso drawings, engravings, sumptuous stained glass, and large-scale altarpieces continue to impress. From 30 November 2019 to 8 March 2020, a major retrospective was dedicated to him in Karlsruhe, Germany, alongside exhibitions in Strasbourg and Freiburg im Breisgau. A significant exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Yale, in the United States also showcased numerous drawings and prints in 1981.
Main Image: Hans BALDUNG GRIEN (Schwäbisch Gmünd c. 1484/85 – Strasbourg 1545) Portrait of Susanna Pfeffinger (Sélestat 1465 – Strasbourg 1538), 1517
Silverpoint on paper prepared with bone dust 15.7 × 10.4 cm Estimate: €1,500,000 – 3,000,000
Silverpoint on paper prepared with bone dust 15.7 × 10.4 cm Estimate: €1,500,000 – 3,000,000