Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann

Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann
A photograph of Jerichau-Baumann taken by Rudolph Striegler.
Born	Baumann November 21, 1819 Warsaw, Congress Poland
Died	July 11, 1881(1881-07-11) (aged 61) Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality	Polish-Danish
Education	Düsseldorf/Rome
Known for	Painting
Patron(s)	Queen Louise of Denmark

Anna Maria Elisabeth Lisinska Jerichau-Baumann (November 21, 1819 – July 11, 1881, Copenhagen) was a Polish-Danish painter of German origin. She was married to the sculptor Jens Adolf Jerichau.

Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann was born in Żoliborz (French: Joli Bord) a borough of Warsaw. Her father Philip Adolph Baumann (1776–1863), a mapmaker, and her mother, Johanne Frederikke Reyer (1790–1854), were German.

At the age of nineteen, she began her studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf which at the time was one of the most important art centres in Europe and her early subject matter was drawn from Slovak life. She is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. She began exhibiting there and in 1844 attracted public attention for the first time. After she moved to Rome, her paintings were primarily of local life. It was here that she met her future husband, Jens Adolf Jerichau, whom she married in 1846. When the artist couple was not travelling, she spent many hours a day in their studio in Rome. She was particularly fond of the Italian carnival as a theme.

The couple moved to Copenhagen in 1849 where her husband became a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Elisabeth was not well received by the Danish art world which was preoccupied at the time with preserving a Danish artistic identity based in the Danish Golden Age of art and the legacy of C.W. Eckersberg. She was not intimidated, however, and tried to find subjects that would appeal to the Danish public. Even though her painting Danmark (1851) became well-known, she had more success with painting portraits of important Danes and did several of Queen Louise of Denmark (1817–1898) and her daughters who kept up a correspondence with her. Yet in spite of this royal patronage, the Danish art world remained cool toward her and the Royal Painting Collection which eventually turned into the Danish National Gallery bought and exhibited only one of her paintings, A wounded Danish soldier.