# Virgin and Child with Saint Anne

**Albrecht Dürer** (German, 1471–1528)  
probably 1519  
Oil on linden  
23 5/8 x 19 5/8 in. (60 x 49.8 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 14.40.633. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436244).

## About this work

Three generations fill this close, half-length panel: Saint Anne, wrapped in a white headcloth, rests a hand on the shoulder of her daughter Mary, who folds her hands in prayer over the sleeping Christ Child. Dürer crops the figures tightly so that we seem to stand at the family’s side, and he sets the lined, watchful face of the older woman against the smooth features of the younger. The meditative mood, the quiet foreboding of the sleeping child and the precise, enamel-like oil technique on linden wood are characteristic of his late paintings.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Albrecht Dürer painted this (probably 1519), aged 48. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Albrecht Dürer](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/albrecht-durer)

German, 1471–1528; born in Nuremberg; died in Nuremberg

Dürer trained as a goldsmith with his father and then under the Nuremberg painter Michael Wolgemut, whose studio produced woodcut book illustrations. Two journeys to Italy brought him into contact with Venetian painting and the theory of proportion, which he set out to bring north. He raised woodcut and engraving to new heights of detail and ambition, issuing his own series such as The Apocalypse and The Life of the Virgin, and his engraving Adam and Eve of 1504 shows his study of the ideal human figure.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Paintings
- The artist was 48
- Real size: about 24 × 20 in (60 × 50 cm). The 18 × 24 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 16th century
- Subjects: Madonna and Child, Saint Anne
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1086.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1086/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/virgin-and-child-with-saint-anne-met-436244).