Anna Waser

Anna Waser ( baptized on October 16, 1678 in Zurich, † September 20, 1714 ibid ) was a Swiss painter and etcher of the High Baroque. It is considered the first known Swiss painter of history.

Life

Anna Waser was born in 1678, the fifth child of a wealthy and prestigious family of Zurich. Her parents were Esther Müller and the magistrate Johann Rudolf Waser, an educated and unprejudiced man, who fostered the talent of the daughter after forces. He had them trained as a painter, although all the social conventions disagreed. When she could not learn anything on their first teacher John Sulzer, he brought the four- year-olds to Bern to Joseph Werner, one of the leading Swiss painter. Four years it remained as the only girl among his male students in his " learning workshop for painting ». Then she returned to her family returned to Zurich. There she received commissions for portraits from the large circle of acquaintances. Even outside the city, you became aware of the young painter. In 1699, Anna Waser was now 21 years old, called them, the arts patron, Count Wilhelm Moritz von Solms- Braunfels as court painter to his castle Braunfels an der Lahn in Hesse. That could be the beginning of a great career. But it never came.

Instead of a planned trip to Paris to compete, she was asked back to Zurich, as the mother was ill and her brother, Johann Rudolf, a tutor in Braunfels, decided to travel to Holland as a military chaplain. From about 1702 now had to take care of her parents' household and the painting was of necessity for secondary activity Anna Waser in Zurich. She painted only here and there a portrait or one of those little pastoral scenes, for which it had at the time been famous. In 1708 she was together with her sisters, Anna Mary and Elizabeth Waser out some calligraphic templates and finally sent her autobiography, a program executed in silver pen technology self-portrait and other works of art to Joachim von Sandrart, who published the dictionary of artists Teutsche Academie. An old chronicle says: " At age 30, she lost her abdominal and mental powers ." A couple of years it dawned to himself. One of her latest works, a silverpoint drawing is provided with the dating 1711th In 1714 Anna Waser died at the age of 35 years from the consequences of a fall.

Work

Your so much praised by contemporary critics of art are almost all lost apart from a few drawings and miniatures. The aforementioned autobiography is lost. Your descendant Maria Waser (1878-1939) wrote the 1913 novel " The Story of Anna Waser ". The self-portrait of 1691 was probably due to encouragement from Anna Waser teacher John Sulzer, which she represented as a reminder in her self-portrait on the easel.