Lot 1067 | Artist in Front of Easel

EMBDE, ARTIST FAMILY
active in Kassel 19th c.
Title: Artist in Front of Easel.
Presumably a daughter of the Kassel artist August von der Embde.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 95 x 77,5cm.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

Gazing confidently out of the frame, who or what the portrayed woman is seeing remains
unknown to us. Next to an unidentifiable object - a magnifying glass or a mirror? - she is holding a palette as well as a painting stick, thus pursuing a rather unconventional activity for a woman of her time. This theme is heightened by the canvas flanking the left edge of the picture: An insight into the painting in progress is denied to the viewer. This Biedermeier painting has a realistic style, expressed less in the accuracy of the human anatomy than in the materiality of the shoulderless dress, as well as in the exactitude of the plant life.
Just who painted this seemingly emancipated portrait remains unclear. During the first half of the 19th century it was attributed to the Kassel painter family von der Embde, consisting of father August (1780-1862) and his daughters Emilie (1816-1904) and Caroline (1812-1867).
August gained some fame, especially through his portraits of Hessian nobility. Starting from 1930 genre pieces and rural children's scenes followed, as well as several works painted with his daughters - or entirely by them - into which category this canvas should also be placed.