Conrad von Soest
Westphalian painter
Conrad von Soest, also Konrad in modern texts, or in Middle High German Conrad van Sost or "von Soyst", (born around 1370 in Dortmund; died soon after 1422) was the most significant Westphalian artist and painted in the so-called soft style of International Gothic. He played a leading role in the introduction of this International Courtly Style to Northern Germany around 1390 and influenced German and Northern European painting into the late 15th century. He was the master of a thriving workshop and was accepted into the social circle of the cosmopolitan patrician elite of Dortmund. Dortmund was then a leading and very prosperous member of the influential Hanseatic League.
Works
Conrad von Soest's main surviving works are influenced by French illuminated manuscripts and certain early Parisian examples of Early Netherlandish painting; his detailed knowledge of Parisian patterns and techniques points towards a sojourn in Paris as a journeyman in the 1380s:
Niederwildungen Altarpiece, a Crucifixion Altarpiece in the protestant Stadtkirche of Bad Wildungen: large winged altarpiece, originally dated 1403. It shows scenes from the Life of the Virgin and the Passion of Christ, including the oldest known depiction of glasses north of the Alps. A contemporary local chronicle (rubbed condition) is written on the reverse side of the central panel. The predella is missing.
Panel from a small portable altarpiece for the Dortmund family of Berswordt with a depiction of "St. Paul" and with "Reinoldus" as a knight on the reverse side, dated to 1404, Alte Pinakothek Munich.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q704984. VIAF identifies the subject as 66737691. The Library of Congress control number is n91070031. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1370, 1422, 1390 and 1403.
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This entry incorporates text from “Conrad von Soest” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.