Franz Müller (1843-1929) Portrait of a Cardinal in a Red Skull Cap, perhaps St Remigius P3256

Franz Müller was a painter of religious subjects and of the folk and folkways of 19th century Germany. He was born in Dusseldorf in 1843.  He trained as a historical and portrait painter at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, where he was educated, among others, by Karl Ferdinand Sohn, Ernst Deger and Eduard Bendemann, who very much influenced Müller in his way of painting.

This is one of four of a series of saints by his hand we have acquired. Each measures 7 3/4" x 9 1/2" and their handsome oak frames are 13 1/2" x 15 3/4".

The label only refers to a larger work, an altar piece in Bonn's St Remigius church of which some or all of these portraits may have been a part, before the damage that church suffered during WWII. We think this is a cardinal by his red cap, or zucchetto, and he is wearing the green of "ordinary time", the period between Easter and Christmas that symbolizes the eager waiting for the Resurrection. Or perhaps he could be St Remigius himself, often portrayed with a long beard.