Anna Maria Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann

Private collection, Copenhagen;

Private collection, New York. 

The German artist Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann, who was born in Poland, spent most of her life in Denmark, where she achieved considerable success as a portraitist and was among the first female members of the Danish Royal Academy of Arts. In 1845, she took a formative trip to Rome, where she likely painted the present portrait, along with one of her most celebrated portraits, Italy, now in the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.¹ Both the Ackland painting and the present work exhibit an inspired lack of formality which allows a greater emotional insight into the sitter and perhaps therefore a greater impact to the modern eye.

1. 1859, Oil on canvas, 38 1/4 x 28 in., see http://ackland.emuseum.com/objects/6207/italy?ctx=1282aa99dfc549f8c27c8a5c8ecd148d57dcc06a&idx=5