Ottilie Roederstein

Ottilie Wilhelmine Roederstein (22 April 1859 – 26 November 1937) was a German-Swiss painter. She was the long-time companion of Elisabeth Winterhalter, one of the first female doctors in Germany.

Life

Roederstein was born in Zürich, Switzerland. She was the second daughter of a businessman who came from Germany to work as a representative for a Swiss textile company.

She was first attracted to painting when the now-forgotten Swiss painter Eduard Pfyffer (1836–1899) came to their home to do family portraits. This interest grew with visits to local museums. For a woman, training as a painter would have gone against contemporary social conventions. Her mother was especially opposed to her wishes,

After 1890, she moved to Frankfurt to be with her partner, Elisabeth Winterhalter; although she travelled widely (including a trip to Africa in 1913). She never lost track of her Swiss roots, however, and became an Honorary Citizen of Zürich in 1902. Five years later, she and Elisabeth settled in Hofheim am Taunus (a suburb of Frankfurt). Amongst her models was Gwen John, who was intrigued that Roederstein wore a shirt, jacket, and a fob watch. Roederstein's painting of her as "The Letter" was exhibited at the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1908. That same year, Roederstein and her partner helped to create the , Frankfurt's first school for girls. After the war, she did a number of portraits of women widowed by the war. Kunsthaus Zürich, Kunstmuseum Basel, Kunstmuseum Bern, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Musée d%27Art et d%27Histoire (Geneva) and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Gallery