The Offer of Love (or The Ill-Assorted Couple) (1495–1496): Art, History and Details

The Offer of Love (or The Ill-Assorted Couple) (1495–1496) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In the late 15th century, moralizing scenes of mismatched lovers were popular subjects for prints. In one variation of the theme, a young woman seduces an unwitting old man in order to steal his money. In Dürer’s version here, however, the male figure willingly reaches into his purse to pay for his younger companion’s affections.

Object facts

• Title: The Offer of Love (or The Ill-Assorted Couple)
• Date: 1495–1496
• Creator attribution: Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)
• Culture: Germany, late 15th-early 16th Century
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Dimensions: Sheet: 14.8 x 13.7 cm (5 13/16 x 5 3/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1934.344

Collection credit

Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• Francis, Henry. "Engravings by Albrect Dürer." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 22, no. 4 (April 1935): 59-64.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.