Louise Breslau

Self-Portrait ; 1891

December 6, 1856 - May 12, 1927

Maria Luise Katharina Breslau, born into an apparently-assimilated Munich-based German Jewish family of Polish Jewish descent, spent her childhood in Zurich, Switzerland, and as an adult made Paris, France, her home. Suffering from asthma all her life, Breslau turned to drawing as a child to help pass the time while confined to her bed. Although she became one of the most sought after portraitists of her time, after her death she and her work were all but forgotten; however, recent interest in Breslau and her works has resurfaced.

Breslau was born into a prosperous bourgeois family; her father was a well-respected physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. When Breslau was two years old, her father accepted the position of professor and head physician of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Zurich. Tragedy hit in December 1866 when Dr. Breslau died suddenly from a staph infection contracted while performing a postmortem examination.

After her father’s death, Breslau was sent to a convent near Lake Constance in hopes of alleviating her chronic asthma. It is believed during her long stays at the convent her artistic talents awoke. In the late-Nineteenth Century young bourgeois ladies were expected to be educated in the domestic arts, including drawing and playing the piano. These were admirable attributes for a respectable wife and mother. Pursuing a career was quite unusual and often prohibited. By 1874 after drawing lessons from a local Swiss artist, Eduard Pfyffer (1836-1899), Breslau knew she would have to leave Switzerland if she wanted to realize her dream of seriously studying art. One of the few places available for young women to study was at the Académie Julian in Paris.

At the Académie, Breslau soon gained the attention of its highly regarded instructors and the envy of some of her classmates, including the Russian Marie Bashkirtseff. In 1879, with a portrait Tout Passé, Breslau was the only female student from the Académie Julian to debut at the Paris Salon; Tout Passé was a self-portrait including her two friends. Shortly afterwards Breslau changed her name to Louise Catherine, opened her own studio, and became a regular contributor and medal winner at the annual Salon. Due to her success at the Salon and favorable notice from the critics, Breslau received numerous commissions from wealthy Parisians. She eventually became the third woman artist, and the first foreign woman artist, to earn France’s Legion of Honor award.

La Toilette ; 1898

Painting Girl ; c. 1900

Friends ; c. 1902