Portrait of Nuremberg Merchant Wolfgang Tobias Huth

Undated (before 1735); Oil on canvas. Bohemian-born painter Johann Kupetzky counts as one of Europe's master baroque portraitists. As members of the Bohemian Brothers, a religious community persecuted by the Counter-Reformation, he and his family were driven out of their homeland while he was still a very young child. Although Kupetzky presumably never quite mastered the German language, he was very well integrated into Nuremberg society from the time of his arrival in 1723. In addition to other artists, his Nuremberg friends also included merchant Wolfgang Tobias Huth, whose portrait Kupetzky painted no less than three times. One of these portraits provides a glimpse of the famed painter's living circumstances and artistry during his years in Nuremberg. A curious fact is that both the painter and his subject were immigrants to the city.