Why Lucas Cranach’s The Nymph of the Spring was ‘almost the perfect subject’ for the artist.

The largest and arguably the most ambitious of 12 extant nymph paintings by the German master. On 7 July a work by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) will be offered in the Old Masters Evening Sale at Christie’s in London. Titled The Nymph of the Spring, it was painted around 1540-45 and is among the last remaining works by Cranach in private ownership. It features a sleeping nude, and is one of 12 known versions of the same subject by Cranach. This example is the largest and, arguably, the most ambitious.