#PrussianArt
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Selbstbildnis (Self-portrait) by Anna Dorothea Therbusch (German) - Oil on canvas / c. 1780 - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Germany) #womeninart #womanartist #art #femaleartist #AnnaDorotheaTherbusch #Therbusch #StaatlicheMuseenzuBerlin #Nationalgalerie #womensart #ArtText #womenartists #PrussianArt
This self-portrait by Prussian artist Anna Dorothea Therbusch in black mantilla, with a single round monocle, shows the painter very focused and without the binding smile in some her other self portraits. It was created shortly before her death in November 1782. This is just one of her self portraits, all characterized by an unadorned characterization and intensity that far surpassed other portrait painters of the time. One example is an almost life-size self-portrait with eye glasses and book, not fully executed, located in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie. Another is a smaller version in a painted stone frame that also dates back to the year of the painter's death and is preserved in the Germanic National Museum, Nuremberg. Therbusch was one of the most prominent German painters of the 18th century. Her œuvre of over 250 works consists predominantly of portraits, but also historical paintings. Her skill earned her the position of court painter to the Elector Palatine in Mannheim and memberships in the academies of Stuttgart, Bologna, Paris, and Vienna. Born in Berlin, in 1721, Therbusch was the seventh of nine children. Her mother was Maria Elisabeth Kahlow and her father was Georg Lisiewsky a portrait painter from a Polish family. Therbusch trained in her father’s workshop, although her older sister Barbara Rosina Lisiewska (later known as Barbara Rosina de Gasc) likely contributed to her artistic education. Benefiting from her father’s ties to the Prussian royal family, she had privileged access to royal collections where she studied 17th century Dutch masters and French Rococo painters such as Watteau and Lancret. In 1742, she married Berlin innkeeper Ernst Friedrich Therbusch and gave up painting until around 1760 to help her husband in the restaurant. Not until her spousal obligations were discharged, as a "short-sighted, middle-aged woman" with 3 children by the age of 40, did she return to her art career in 1760 in Stuttgart for the court of Duke Karl Eugen.
April 28, 2025 at 4:52 AM