Louise Catherine Breslau

Louise Catherine Breslau (6 December 1856 – 12 May 1927) was a German-born Swiss artist of Jewish ancestry.

Born Maria Luise Katharina Breslau into an apparently-assimilated Munich-based German Jewish family of Polish Jewish descent, she spent her childhood in Zurich, Switzerland and as an adult made Paris, France her home (where she also dropped "Maria", perhaps taking "Maria" as inappropriate for a Jew regardless of whether its use is for "Mariam" or "Mary"). Suffering from asthma all her life, Breslau turned to drawing as a child to help pass the time while confined to her bed. Although she became one of the most sought after portraitists of her time, after her death she and her work were all but forgotten. It has only been in the past few years that interest in Breslau and her works has been growing.

Breslau was born into a prosperous bourgeois family; her father was a well-respected physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. When Breslau was two years old, her father accepted the position of professor and head physician of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Zurich; Switzerland became home to the Breslau family. Tragedy hit in December 1866 when Dr. Breslau died suddenly from a staph infection contracted while performing a post-mortem examination.

Lydia Escher (1858–1892) was a childhood friend of Louise Breslau in Zürich, and in her letters she told to take singing and piano lessons, and Lydia was inspired by the creative genius.

After her father's death, Breslau was sent to a convent near Lake Constance in hopes of alleviating her chronic asthma. It is believed that during her long stays at the convent her artistic talents were awoken. In the late 19th century young bourgeois ladies were expected to be educated in the domestic arts including drawing and playing the piano. These were admirable attributes for a respectable wife and mother. Pursuing a career was quite unusual and often prohibited. By 1874, after having taken drawing lessons from a local Swiss artist, Eduard Pfyffer (1836–1899), Breslau knew that she would have to leave Switzerland if she wanted to realize her dream of seriously studying art. One of the few places available for young women to study was at the Académie Julian in Paris.

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