Louise Elisabeth Bachofen-Burckhardt

Louise Elisabeth Bachofen-Burckhardt (October 8, 1845 – February 21, 1920) was a Swiss philanthropist. She is known for her art collection that she bequeathed to the Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland. Her 1904 gift doubled the museum’s collection of Old Masters. She married anthropologist and antiquarian Johann Jakob Bachofen at age 25. She was widowed at the age of 42.

During the last decades of her life, she collected about 300 paintings from the late Middle Ages to the 20th century, including works by artists Bartolomeo Vivarini, Jan Breughel the Elder, Hans Memling, and Lucas Cranach the Elder. Some of her acquisitions, such as Hans Memling’s Saint Jerome in Penitence, were initially disputed but later recognised as major works.

Legacy From 2019 to 2020, the Kunstmuseum Basel ran a special exhibition honouring Bachofen-Burckhardt, 100 years after her death.