Portrait of a Woman

This signed and dated portrait of a young lady can be aligned with Tischbein's portraits of ladies and young girls, dating from the second half of the 1790s and composed as busts of the portrayed person in an oval frame. At the time, Tischbein was a sought-after portrait painter. He was popular both among the nobility and wealthy urban middle classes. Portraiture was the principal area of specialization in the artistic career of J. F. A. Tischbein,who was also known as the Leipziger Tischbein. Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein known as the Goethe Tischbein was his cousin. Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder, nicknamed the Kasseler Tischbein, was his uncle with whom J. F. A. Tischbein trained from 1768. After his study sojourn in France, he journeyed to Rome and Naples. In Rome he was influenced by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann and the arwork of Anton Raphael Mengs. In 1780, he was back in Germany but did not cease travelling, at the time also to Holland, and engaged increasingly in portraiture. In 1795, he was still in the services of Prince Friedrich Franz von Anhalt-Dessau. He achieved great success that same year in Berlin. In 1799-1800 he made portraits in Dresden and in 1800 was entrusted with running the Art Academy in Leipzig.