
A young Egyptian woman, c. E. Jerichau 1870
Pencil on paper
26 x 29 cm
Private collection
In the winter of 1869–1870, Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann traveled to Constantinople, Athens, Smyrna, Alexandria and Cairo. It was on this trip that she, as one of the first painters ever, got access to a harem in Constantinople.
Anna Maria Elisabeth Lisinska Jerichau-Baumann (21 November 1819–11 July 1881) was a Polish-Danish painter. She was married to the sculptor Jens Adolf Jerichau.
Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann was born in Żoliborz,a borough of Warsaw. Her father Philip Adolph Baumann (1776–1863), a mapmaker, and her mother, Johanne Frederikke Reyer (1790–1854), were of German extraction.
At the age of nineteen, she began her studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf which at the time was one of the most important art centres in Europe and her early subject matter was drawn from Slovak life. She is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. She began exhibiting there and in 1844 attracted public attention for the first time. After she moved to Rome, her paintings were primarily of local life. When Baumann was not travelling, she spent many hours a day in her studio in Rome. She was particularly fond of the Italian painters. Baumann had great success abroad, however, and had a special following in France where she was twice represented at the World Fair in Paris, first in 1867 and again in 1878. In 1852 she exhibited some of her paintings in London, and Queen Victoria requested a private presentation in Buckingham Palace. Among the portraits presented to the Queen was her painting of Hans Christian Andersen, completed in 1850. More on Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann…