German Rococo portrait painter (active in the 18th century) Pair of hip portraits Counterparts. Representative, artistically high-quality, courtly portraits. One depicts the artist himself as a young painter, wearing a sumptuously embroidered red justau corps with matching waistcoat and pleated white shirt, holding a palette with brushes and a painting stick in his hands, his self-confident, critical gaze directed almost en face at the viewer. The second portrait is of his wife, it shows a young, elegant lady in a graceful pose playing a lute, dressed in rococo fashion, the blue, tight-waisted dress with a low neckline, her hair and neck adorned with pink rose petals and a bow of the same colour. Oil on canvas, double; old labels with provenance information on the verso "gek. von Weisenbek (/) München (/) Rest. v. Heinr.(?) Fock (/) Hamburg 1907" and by Edgar Michahelles, Nonnenstieg 1, Hamburg. 92.5 cm x 70 cm-72 cm. Original rococo frame of carved and gilded wood, each with a later painted Michahelles family coat of arms in the crowned cartouche (dimensions approx. 160 cm x 88 cm). Provenance: from the Michahelles Collection, Hamburg, which has grown over generations. German portrait painter active 18th C.; A pair of paintings depicting a self-portrait of the artist and his wife. Oil on canvas, relined. Old labels with provenance in the reverse. Acquired prior 1907 (restored this year), since then in the private collection of the Michahelles family in Hamburg. Original carved gilt wood frames.