Material Silverpoint drawing on vellum
Dimensions 15.4 x 10.7 cm
Status Vetted

About the Work

The miniaturist and etcher, Anna Waser, came from a respected Zurich family. In the course of the excellent academic training she received from an early age she demonstrated not only her gift for languages (Latin and French), but also her artistic talents as a miniaturist and draughtswoman. She was given her first lessons in painting in Zurich by Johann Sulzer, under whose watchful eye the twelve-year-old made the touching self-portrait that is now in the Kunsthaus in Zurich. In Bern in the spring of 1692 Anna was apprenticed as the sole female pupil to Joseph Werner, in whose studio she remained until 1696. Having completed her training, she took up miniature painting in Zurich on her own initiative, achieving such renown in this discipline that she was appointed court painter to the Counts of Solms-Braunfels in 1699. Three years later the artist, who remained unmarried throughout her life, returned to Zurich, where she pursued a very successful and highly regarded career until her premature death in 1714 at the age of just thirty-five.


In this airy, half-length profile portrait executed with the utmost delicacy Anna is dressed in a finely pleated, classical-style robe; her elaborate braided hairstyle is similarly inspired by Roman models from the Flavian period. Her physiognomy with the high forehead and distinct pointed nose bears a close resemblance to the engraved portrait of the artist in Jean-Baptiste Descamps’ publication La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandais (1764, vol. IV, p. 202). A marginally smaller, full-length miniature portrait with a similar hairstyle that dates to 1704 was auctioned at Sotheby’s in London on 6 July 2022 (lot 124). The present charming portrait is not merely of very high artistic quality, but also extremely valuable in cultural history terms in that it documents the life and work of this fascinating artist.

Show moreless

Literature

J. K. Dabbs, Life Stories of Women Artists, 1550-1800, An Anthology, University of Minnesota Morris 2008, pp. 328-336.

View artwork at TEFAF Maastricht 2025

View Full Floorplan