Amalia Küssner Coudert
| Amalia Küssner Coudert | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Amalia Küssner March 26, 1863 Greencastle, Indiana |
| Died | May 1932 Montreux, Switzerland |
| Nationality |
 United States
|
| Education | Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Academy |
| Known for | Portrait miniature painting |
| Patron(s) | Minnie Paget |
Amalia Küssner Coudert (March 26, 1863 – May 1932) was an American miniaturist known for her portraits of prominent figures of the late 19th century including Caroline Astor,King Edward VII, Czar Nicholas II of Russia and Cecil Rhodes.
Coudert was born on March 26, 1863, in Greencastle, Indiana, to Lorenz and Emilie (Weinhardt) Küssner. On February 24, 1864, the family, including Amalia's siblings Albert and Louisa, moved to Terre Haute, Indiana. Her father, a German immigrant, ran a musical instrument repair shop called Küssner's Palace of Music at 213 Ohio Street. Lorenz gave his daughter a miniature portrait on ivory when Coudert was 12 years old, and she soon began painting her own miniatures. Coudert enjoyed etching the local scenery and soon began etching on ivory, often from the discarded piano keys of damaged pianos.
Coudert graduated from Terre Haute High School in 1881. She then studied with artist Sister Maurice Schnell at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Academy. From 1883 to 1885 Coudert studied in New York at Madame Da Saliva's boarding school, but in 1885 she returned to Terre Haute, where she established a studio and studied under tutor Helen Minshall.
Coudert's typical miniature portraits were painted on small ivory discs 2-3 inches in diameter. In all, she completed more than 200 of these miniatures.
Her earliest portraits were during her time in Terre Haute, where she painted likenesses of local families including the Fairbanks, Minshalls, Bakers and Reynolds.
By 1892 Coudert had moved to New York City with the recommendation of school friend and successful actress Alice Fischer. She maintained a studio in the Windsor Hotel and painted portraits of Manhattan's elite, including Caroline Astor, at approximately US $1,000 per portrait. During these period a Harper's Bazaar writer profiled her luxuriously decorated studio and described Coudert as a 22-year-old child prodigy, even though she was 31 years old at the time. (Coudert did nothing to correct this error, in fact encouraging those who saw her as "girl artist." For years, she continued to claim her age was a full decade younger than was true.) Coudert also taught; among her pupils was the miniaturist Rosa Hooper.
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