This research and book project focusses on the paintings by Anna Dorothea Therbusch that are held in Berlin and Brandenburg, with particular attention being paid to the cultural-historical aspects of her creations as well as the painterly techniques she used and the background to her compositions.
Born into a Prussian family of painters, the Lisiewskys, Anna Dorothea Therbusch (1721–1782) forged a remarkable international career in the 18th century – a time in which access to artistic academies and education was structurally impeded for women. Following an education from her father Georg Lisiewsky and taking in the influence of Frederician Rococo (through artists such as Watteau and Pesne), Therbusch subsequently spent the next 20 years of her life raising her children. It was not until 1761, at the age of forty, that she began to pursue her artistic ambitions professionally.
Therbusch worked for the courts of Stuttgart and Mannheim, was a member of the academies in Stuttgart and Bologna, and spent around two years in Paris between summer 1766 and autumn 1768, where she was accepted – albeit not without resistance – into the Académie Royale on the basis of a candlelight painting in the Netherlandish style. In 1768, she was also accepted into the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Returning to Berlin in 1769, she became one of the city’s most sought-after portraitists. She also painted for the court of the Russian tsar, and her mythologically inspired paintings were popular with Frederick the Great.
Interest in the life and work of the painter from both art historians and members of the public alike has grown in recent years. To mark the 300th anniversary of her birth in 2021, the Gemäldegalerie organised the exhibition Anna Dorothea Therbusch: A Berlin Woman Artist of the Age of Enlightenment, which formed the starting point for the art-historical and technologically-assisted research project, which concentrated on the paintings by the artist that are held in Berlin and Brandenburg.
The aim of the project was to present the paintings by Therbusch held by public institutions in Berlin and Brandenburg and to situate them within both an art-historical context and the artist’s own biography. To achieve this, existing classifications were reassessed, previously unconsidered documents were consulted, and extant knowledge was deepened through comparative analysis of the artist’s works. Particular areas of focus included Therbusch’s working environment, her sources of artistic inspiration, and her conception of herself as an artist.
The examination of all of Therbusch’s paintings held by the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin using specialised technology was also an integral part of the project. Alongside stereomicroscopy, radiographic procedures such as X-radiography, UV fluorescence testing and infrared reflectology were being used. In addition, analyses of selected works using X-ray fluorescence, optical spectroscopy, liquid chromatology (HPLC) and Raman spectroscopy (SERS) undertaken in collaboration with the scientific laboratory of the Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin–Brandenburg were used. These activities provided insights into the artist’s working methods and the materials she used as well as the production history of the individual paintings, while also subjected traditional understandings of Therbusch’s painting methods and the paints that she supposedly used to scientific scrutiny.
The publication will make Therbusch’s paintings held in Berlin and Brandenburg comprehensibly accessible in book form for the first time, alongside new insights into the artist’s working methods and the materials she used. With wide-ranging essays contextualising the paintings and the project’s findings, it will also serve as an up-to-date introduction to the artist’s work.
Nuria Jetter (ed.), Anna Dorothea Therbusch in Berlin and Brandenburg: Works, Techniques, Contexts, featuring contributions by Jens Bartoll, Alexandra Engel, Anina Gröger, Nuria Jetter, Sarah Salomon, Anna Schultz, Birgit Verwiebe and Anja Wolf (to be published in 2024).
Objectives and outcomes: Research into collection, publication, symposium
Project overseen by: Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Lead researchers: Nuria Jetter (research associate, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Dr Sarah Salomon (curator of European painting of the 18th century and German painting of the 17th century, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Anja Wolf (paintings conservator, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
Project participants: Jens Bartoll (director of the scientific laboratory of the Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin–Brandenburg), Ramona Roth (paintings conservator, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
With support from: Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg; Klassik Stiftung Weimar; Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin–Brandenburg; Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin
Project duration: 2022 to 2024
Funded by: Funding for the project has been provided through a generous donation by the Castor & Pollux Stiftung gGmbH (printing costs) alongside private donations (for the restoration of Therbusch’s Self-Portrait with Monocle)