Susanne von Nathusius, c.1910
Portrait of her brother, Major General Wilhelm Engelhard von Nathusius

Susanne Philippine von Nathusius (2 May 1850, in Königsborn – 30 December 1929, in Nietleben, near Halle) was a German portrait painter who worked in Halle and Paris.

Biography

She was the third of six children born to the biologist Wilhelm von Nathusius and his wife, Marie and grew up in the family manor at Königsborn, where she received her education from tutors.[1] Later, she studied at the Royal School of Art in Berlin under Gottlieb Biermann. She also took lessons with Karl Stauffer-Bern and received support from Julius Jacob the Younger.[2] She was a friend and regular guest of the sculptor brothers Karl and Reinhold Begas.

She continued her studies in Paris at the Académie Julian, where her teachers included Jean-Paul Laurens, Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran and Jean Jacques Henner.[2] Upon completing her studies, she worked as a portrait painter in Berlin; exhibiting there and in Paris. Eventually, though, she decided to establish herself in Halle.

In 1880, she held her first major exhibition at the Prussian Academy of Arts.[3] In 1891, she took part in an exhibition organized by the Verein Berliner Künstler on the occasion of their fiftieth anniversary.[4][5] In 1893, one of her paintings was shown in the Woman's Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.[6] That same year, she began participating in the Paris Salon, where she won a silver medal for her portrayal of a Thuringian shoemaker smoking his pipe.[2]

At the beginning of World War I, she had to abandon her studio in Paris. During the war, she remained in Halle, where she became involved in the "National Women's Work" program; establishing a sewing room that offered employment opportunities for military wives and widows.[1]

Among her best-known works are a series of portraits of Professors at the University of Halle and several military figures, including Gottlieb Graf von Haeseler and her younger brother, Wilhelm.

She died after a long stay at a nursing home in Nietleben. She was originally buried near Magdeburg but, when the cemetery there was closed, she was transferred to the family plot in Althaldensleben.

References

  1. 1 2 Lilly von Nathusius: Susanne Philippine von Nathusius. In: Johann Gottlob Nathusius und seine Nachkommen sowie sein Neffe Moritz Nathusius mit seinen Nachkommen (Family Chronicle), Detmold 1964
  2. 1 2 3 G. Warnstorff, Susanne von Nathusius zum Gedächtnis. Zu ihrem 80. Geburtstag am 2. Mai, in: Hallische Nachrichten (Supplement) 30 April 1930, Halle
  3. ↑ Ausstellung der Königlichen Akademie der Künste, Die Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin 1880
  4. ↑ Der Kulturkämpfer, Band 2, 1880 Otto Glagau (Ed.), (4. Jahrg., Heft 96, Dezember 1880/1883), S. 251
  5. ↑ Katalog zur Internationalen Kunst-Ausstellung veranstaltet vom Verein Berliner Künstler anlässlich seines fünfzigjährigen Bestehens 1841-1891, Verlag des Vereins Berliner Künstler, Berlin 1891
  6. ↑ Columbische Weltausstellung in Chicago. Amtlicher Katalog der Ausstellung des deutschen Reiches, Reichskommission zur Weltausstellung in Chicago 1893 (Eds.), Reichsdruckerei 1893 S. 231

Further reading

  • Friedrich von Boetticher, "Susanne von Nathusius", in: Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts, Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte, Vol.II/1

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