to the painter Michael Wohlgemuth. At this time Albert
was fifteen years old, and the two years he had spent with the goldsmith
had doubtless been of great advantage to him; for in that time he had been
trained in the modelling of small, delicate objects, and in the accurate
design necessary in making the small articles in precious metals which are
the principal work of that trade.

Albert Duerer had a very strong nature, and Michael Wohlgemuth was not a
man who could gain much influence over such a youth. During the three
years which Duerer passed under his teaching he learned all the modes of
preparing and using colors, and acquired much skill in handling the brush;
he also learned the first lessons in wood-engraving, in which he afterward
reached so high a perfection that a large part of his present fame rests
upon his skill in that art.

One of the earliest portraits painted by Duerer is in the Albertina at
Vienna, and bears this inscription: "This I have drawn from myself from
the looking-glass, in the year 1484, when I was still a child. ALBERT
DUERER." Six years later he painted the beautiful portrait of his father
which is now in the gallery at Florence; and it is a question whether this
is not as finely executed as any portrait of his later years.

When Duerer left Wohlgemuth he started upon the student journey which was
then the custom with all German youths, and is still practised in a
modified degree. These youths, after serving their apprenticeship in the
occupation they were to follow, travelled, and worked at their trade or
profession in the cities of other countries. Duerer was absent four years,
but we know little of what he did or saw, for in his own account of his
life he says only this: "And when the three years were out my father sent
me away. I remained abroad four years, when he recalled me; and, as I had
left just after Easter in 1490, I returned home in 1494, just after
Whitsuntide."

In the same year, in July, Duerer was married to Agnes Frey. He was also
admitted to the guild of painters, and we may say that he was now settled
for life. It is a singular fact that, although Duerer painted several
portraits of his father and himself, he is not known to have made any of
his wife. Some of his sketches are called by her name, but there is no
good reason for this.

Duerer was so industrious, and executed so many pictures, copper-plates,
and wood engravings within the six years next after his re