Worth a look
“Anna Dorothea Therbusch” exhibition at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Art and Heritage in Central Europe
Three hundred years ago, on 23 July 1721, Anna Dorothea Therbusch was born in Berlin as the daughter of the Prussian court painter Georg Lisiewsky. She would go on to become one of the most important women artists of the 18th century. To mark the tercentenary of her birth, in autumn of 2021 the Gemäldegalerie is honouring this extraordinary artist and forerunner of women’s emancipation with a focussed special exhibition featuring key works from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s own collections.
Not just one, but two of the branches of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin boast works by this great local artist in their collections, namely the Gemäldegalerie and the Alte Nationalgalerie. These collections have also provided museums right across the city with permanent loans, with Therbusch’s work on display at the Bode-Museum, the Kunstgewerbemuseum and at the Jewish Museum Berlin. One of her best-known works is her large-format self-portrait from around 1782, which is displayed at the Gemäldegalerie. In this work, Therbusch presents herself as a scholar and elegant figure of note, and as an approachable and intelligent interlocutor, demonstrating her interest in both objects and her conversation partner through the book in her hand and her frontal gaze.
On the occasion of the 300th Anniversary of Therbusch’s birth, the Gemäldegalerie brings together almost the entire collection of Therbusch works from the collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
The exhibition “Anna Dorothea Therbusch. A Berlin Woman Artist of the Age of Enlightenment” is available at Gemäldegalerie in Berlin from 03.12.2021 to 10.04.2022.
