2-726-952 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Dead Blue Roller, 1583. Half a century after his death, Albrecht Dürer’s work continued to inspire artists and collectors. Well known for his copies of Dürer’s nature studies, Hoffmann faithfully copied Dürer’s celebrated drawing of a dead blue roller of 1512 in this exquisite watercolour. A network of very fine brushstrokes imitates the individual plumes of the bird’s underside while simultaneously suggesting an overall soft, downy texture. Hoffman’s prominent monogram and date indicate he never intended this to pass as an original by the older master: he meant it as an homage to the greatest German artist of the 1500s.