Clara Siewert

Clara Siewert (9 December 1862, Budda (Pomerania) - 11 October 1945, Berlin) was a German Symbolist painter, graphic artist and sculptor; associated with the Berlin Secession.

She was born to a family of Baltic-Germans who had moved from Saint Petersburg to Danzig after falling out of favor at court. Her father was a retired Prussian Army captain, her mother, Helene (1837-1924), was an amateur artist and her younger sister, Elisabeth became a popular novelist.

She began drawing as a young girl; inspired by the magical themes of the fairy tales she and her friends acted out. Later, she would sketch from nature. After graduating from a women's college, she went to Königsberg in 1878 for professional lessons, but the Kunstakademie did not accept female students at that time, so she took private lessons with some local artists.

In 1884, she began to divide her time between Budda and Berlin and was finally able to secure lessons from a notable painter, the Swiss portraitist, Karl Stauffer-Bern, who introduced her to the work of the Symbolist, Arnold Böcklin; a major influence on her style. This was followed by lessons from Max Koner, known as the "Kaisermaler", who ran a famous studio for female artists. She completed her studies around 1888/89 with Hugo Vogel.

In 1892, she began to exhibit in the Berlin salons and became associated with the "Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen", a group of female artists. Sometime in the late 1890s, she settled permanently in Berlin. She took a semi-detached house and set up a studio there, near a studio that was frequented by members of the Expressionist group, Die Brücke. In 1901, she started to exhibit with the Berlin Secession. She was also associated with the Deutscher Künstlerbund.

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