A photograph of the artist’s mother, perhaps circa 1890-1900.
The artist has evidently based the composition on Rembrandt’s pictures of his mother, a fact which must have been in the mind of the critic of the New York Evening Post, December 12, 1906 when he said that ‘By far the most charming is the portrait of the artist’s mother, with its rich, if rather factitious, brown tone, and its careful modelling, which is both searching and soft.’ American Art News, December 8, 1906 described this as possessing ‘…Strong modelling and rich color…’ and Town and Country, December 15, 1906, said ‘It shows a kind, good face, and much refinement.’
The picture is visible in the background to photographs taken in November 1909 when the artist posed with his portrait of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II – one of these pictures being reproduced in Zurcher Illustrierte, No. 4, January 27, 1939, XV Jahrgang, p.108, and in Karl Iten, URI: Die Kunst- und Kulturlandschaft am Weg zum Gotthard, Altdorf, 1991, p.244.
According to the late Iva Müller (the artist’s niece) speaking with the editor, Muller-Ury asked Duveen Brothers in 1938 to ship this picture back to the Haus Müller-Lombardi, but when the picture arrived the heavy gold frame had disappeared!
