Louise Catherine Breslau (6 December 1856 – 12 May 1927) was a German-born Swiss painter, who learned drawing to pass the time while bedridden with chronic asthma. She studied art at the Académie Julian in Paris, and exhibited at the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, where she became a respected colleague of noted figures such as Edgar Degas and Anatole France.
Biography
Early years
Born Maria Luise Katharina Breslau into an apparently-assimilated Munich-based German Jewish family of Polish Jewish descent.[1] In 1858, 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, and the family moved to Switzerland. In December 1866, Dr. Breslau died suddenly from a staph infection contracted while performing a post-mortem examination. Suffering from asthma all her life, Breslau turned to drawing as a child to help pass the time while confined to her bed. She spent her childhood in Zürich, Switzerland, and as an adult made Paris her home where she also stopped using her first name "Maria".
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 awakened. 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.[3][4]
At the Académie, Breslau soon gained the attention of its highly regarded instructors and the jealousy of some of her classmates, including the Russian Marie Bashkirtseff. She also met her life-long friend, the Irish artist Sarah Purser[5] and Sophie Schaeppi (Switzerland), Maria Feller (Italy), Jenny Zillhardt and her sister, Madeleine Zillhardt.
In 1879, with a portrait “Tout passé”, Breslau was the only student from the Académie Julian women's atelier to debut at the Paris Salon. “Tout passé” was a self-portrait that included her two friends. Shortly afterwards Breslau had changed her name to Louise Catherine, opened her own atelier, and was becoming a regular contributor and medal winner at the annual Salon. Due to her success at the Salon and favorable notice from the critics, Breslau received numerous commissions from wealthy Parisians. She joined the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1890, not only exhibiting in its salons but also serving on the jury. She eventually became the third woman artist, and the first foreign woman artist to be bestowed France's Legion of Honor award.
Over the years, Breslau became a well-regarded colleague to some of the day's most popular artists and writers including Edgar Degas and Anatole France. One person who was very special in Breslau's life was Madeleine Zillhardt with whom she spent over forty years. Madeleine, a fellow student at the Académie Julian, became Breslau's muse, model, confidant, and supporter. Zillhardt inherited Breslau's estate and later donated sixty of the artist's pastels and drawings to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon. In 1932, Zillhardt published a book about Louise Breslau titled Louise Catherine Breslau et ses amis (Louise Catherine Breslau and her Friends).
Breslau died in 1927, and in 1928, the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris honored her with a retrospective. Her work was also featured in a 1932 retrospective at Galerie Charpentier dedicated to women who trained at the Académie Julian.
Gabriel Yturride (pastel,1904)
Personal life
During World War I, Breslau and Zillhardt remained at their home outside Paris, in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Although she naturalised to Switzerland many years earlier, she showed her loyalty for the French by drawing numerous portraits of French soldiers and nurses on their way to the Front. After the war, Breslau retired from the public and spent much of her time painting flowers from her garden and entertaining friends.
In 1927 Breslau died after a long illness. According to her wishes, Madeleine Zillhardt inherited much of Breslau's estate. Breslau was buried next to her mother in the small town of Baden, in Canton Aargau, Switzerland.
The barge 'Louise-Catherine' in Paris is named in her memory by Madeleine Zillhardt. She bought it with the support of Winnareta Singer. The boat was redesigned by Le Corbusier and was held by the Salvation Army in order to shelter homeless people. Now property of the Fondation Le Corbusier, the barge sank during the February 2018 flood of the Seine,[8] now waiting for renovation.[9]
Breslau was included in the 2018 exhibit Women in Paris 1850-1900.[10]
Krüger, Anne-Catherine. Die Malerin Louise Catherine Breslau 1856–1927. Diss. U. Hamburg, 1988. Biographie u. Werkanalyse zur Erlangung der Würde des Doktors der Philosophie der Universität Hamburg. Hamburg, 1988.
Weisberg, Gabriel P and Jane R. Becker, editors. Overcoming All Obstacles. The Women of the Académie Julian. The Dahesh Museum of Art, New York, New York and Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1999.
Zillhardt, Madeleine. Louise Breslau und Ihre Freunde. Editions des Portiques 1932. In's Deutsche übertragen von Ernst v. Bressensdorf. Starnberg, 1979.
Zillhardt, Madeline. Louise Catherine Breslau et ses amis. Paris: Éditions des Portiques, 1932.
Becker, Jane R. “Nothing Like a Rival to Spur One On: Marie Bashkirtseff and Louise Breslau at the Académie Julian.” In Overcoming All Obstacles: The Women of the Académie Julian, edited by Gabriel P. Weisberg and Jane R. Becker, 69–113. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999.
Lepdor, Catherine, Anne-Catherine Krüger, and Gabriel P. Weisberg. Louise Breslau: de l'impressionnisme aux années folles. Lausanne: Musée cantonal des beaux-arts de Lausanne, 2001.
Laurence Madeline; with Bridget Alsdorf, Richard Kendall, Jane R. Becker, Vibeke Waallann Hansen, Joëlle Bolloch "Women artists in Paris, 1850-1900" New Haven, Connecticut : Yale University Press, 2017
