Anna Dorothea Therbusch

Anna Dorothea Therbusch (born Anna Dorothea Lisiewski, , 23 July 1721 – 9 November 1782) was a prominent Rococo painter born in the Kingdom of Prussia. About 200 of her works survive, and she painted at least eighty-five verified portraits.

Life

Anna Dorothea Therbusch was born in Berlin. She came from a noted family, the daughter of Maria Elisabetha (née Kahlow ) and Georg Lisiewski (1674–1751), a Berlin portrait painter of Polish stock who arrived in Prussia in 1692 as part of the retinue of the court architect . Georg taught Anna, her sister Anna Rosina Lisiewski and their brother Christian Friedrich Reinhold to paint. Anna Dorothea and her elder sister Anna Rosina were hailed as Wunderkinder of painting. In her youth, she painted copies of Antoine Pesne's fetes galantes and, like Pesne, learned to emulate the styles of Watteau, Lancret, and Pater – artists who Frederic II especially admired. as a "short-sighted, middle-aged woman", did she return to her art career in 1760.

Therbusch's first recorded return to painting was in 1761 in the Stuttgart court of Duke Karl Eugen. She completed eighteen paintings in the shortest time for the castle gallery. In 1762 she became an honorary member of the Stuttgart Académie des Arts, founded by Duke Karl Eugen in 1761, and worked in Stuttgart and Mannheim. She did receive recognition for her works. Her talent was recognized by the Academia of Bologna. She was also honored by the court of Mannheim. Therbusch had painted the Kurfurst Karl Throdor in and received commissions from the Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. Anna Dorothea was elected as a member of the Académie Royale in 1767, and even painted Philipp Hackert Though Anna Dorothea never went to Russia, Russian collectors also appreciated her work. She also met the group of artists surrounding Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Therbusch would continue to paint into her late life. She frequently painted self-portraits, twelve total. As her eyesight started to fail her, she would frequently add monocles into her self-portraits. Her late paintings were loosely classical, with garbs and hints of Roman goddesses.

She died in Berlin on 9 November 1782 at the age of 61, and was buried at Dorotheenstadt cemetery, whose pertaining church was destroyed in World War II. Her tomb remains intact.

Her relationship with Diderot inspired Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt to write his play Der Freigeist ("The Free Spirit"), also known as Der Libertin ("The Libertine").

Gallery

References and sources