Born in Berlin in 1721, Anna Dorothea Therbusch received her early training as a painter from her father, the court artist Georg Lisiewsky, but as the wife of an innkeeper and mother of five children she was unable to devote herself to painting until she reached her forties. She soon made up for lost time; her talents swiftly brought her renown as a portraitist, with clients including Frederick the Great, the eminent salonnière Henriette Herz and the physician and botanist Christian Andreas Cothenius. This survey at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (3 December–10 April 2022), marking the tercentenary of her birth, brings together almost all the works by Therbusch housed in the collections of Berlin’s state museums. Find out more from the Gemäldegalerie’s website.
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here
Johann Julius von Vieth und Golßenau (1771), Anna Dorothea Therbusch. Photo: Jörg P. Anders; © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
Henriette Herz (1778), Anna Dorothea Therbusch. Photo: Andres Kilger; © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
Christian Andreas Cothenius (1777), Anna Dorothea Therbusch. Photo: Volker-H. Schneider; © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
Self-portrait (1782), Anna Dorothea Therbusch. Photo: Jörg P. Anders; © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie