The artist Franz Pforr of Frankfurt left a handful of paintings and some 150 drawings behind when he died, still a young man. He had aspired towards art’s renewal through recourse to religion and the Middle Ages. The half-length self-portrait was long considered a work by Friedrich Overbeck, like Pforr a member of the artists’ group which had founded the “Brotherhood of St. Luke” in 1809. Whereas Overbeck emulated Raphael, Pforr represented those of the Nazarenes who took their orientation from Early German art, primarily Dürer. With its stylized quality – brought about by the emphasis on the contours – the simple self-portrait testifies to the seriousness and piety of this art.