balthasar denner was a german painter, highly regarded as a portraitist. he painted mostly half-length and head-and-shoulders portraits and a few group portraits of families in interiors. usually denner concentrated on the face; clothes and paraphernalia were done by other painters or later his daughter. his chief peculiarity consisted in the fineness of his mechanical finish, which extended to depicting even the almost invisible furze of hair growing on smooth skin. he is particularly noted for his heads of old men and women. denner was born in the city of altona, now incorporated into hambu…