Marie Ellenrieder, “Self-Portrait as a Teenager making a Self-Portrait,” circa 1810, miniature painting, 7,2 x 6,9 cm.
Marie Ellenrieder (1791-1863), the first woman admitted to an art academy in Germany.
The pioneering German painter Marie Ellenrieder was born in Konstanz on March 20, 1791. She was the granddaughter of the German baroque painter Franz Ludwig Hermann. Before beginning her studies at the Munich Academy of Art (Akademie der Bildenden Künste München) in 1813 at age 22, she apprenticed in Konstanz with the noted miniaturist Joseph Einsle (see below an example of his own work as well as one of his instructional books). Our wonderful self-portrait dates from that period.
“Self-Portrait as a Teenager,” among Marie Ellenrieder’s earliest surviving works, is one of a group of seven miniatures by Ellenrieder that The Daulton Collection acquired in Vienna in 2011. The other six miniatures of this remarkable group depict family members: her father Konrad, her mother Maria Anna, her sister Valentine and her children, her sister Anna, her sister Josephine, and her brother-in-law Nicolas Detry. And these family portraits can also be seen on this website.
The time Marie spent at the Munich Academy served her well and by the late 1810s she was producing portraits of a highly refined and naturalistic style, such as The Daulton Collection’s “Portrait of a Young Man,” oil on canvas, circa 1817. Between 1822 and 1824, she journeyed on a study trip to Rome, where she fell under the influence of the Nazarenes, a group of German artists known for religious art in the style of the Italian Renaissance (the work of Rafael in particular). This style would dominate her work for the rest of her life, such as The Daulton Collection’s “St. Stephen among the Angels,” oil on board, 1857. After her death in 1863, Ellenrieder was largely forgotten by the history of art until her rediscovery in recent years.
The Daulton Collection owns one of the world’s largest groups of work by Marie Ellenrieder.
