Rosa Schapire

Rosa Schapire (9 September 1874 – 1 February 1954) was an Austro-Hungarian-born art historian who lived in Germany and England. She was a model and art owner who gave early recognition to the Die Brücke group of artists.

Life Rosa Schapire was born in Brody, Galicia (now Ukraine) in 1874. Art historian Shulamith Behr notes in her Jewish Women's Archive article on Schapire that in 1948 Schapire "recalled her childhood memories of the nationalistic and religious divisions between the Poles and the Ruthenians (Ukranians) in Galicia, which was part of the Habsburg Empire. Here she declared that she was predestined towards internationalism through her birth, upbringing and fate." She was one of the first women to receive a degree in art history from a German institution, earning her undergraduate degree from the University of Bern in 1902 and going on to earn a PhD from Heidelberg University in 1904 and to pursue post-graduate studies at Leipzig University.

Schapire was herself a model for different painters. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff of the Brücke group made several portraits of her including one in 1919.

In 1939, she was able to escape Nazi-dominated Germany for England. There, she contributed to various art journals, such as Architectural Review, Eidos, Connoisseur and . She also assisted Nikolaus Pevsner with collection of material for his series The Buildings of England.

She died in the Tate Gallery in 1954. However, there is one portrait of her by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in The Tate.