Marie Louisa KIRSCHNER (1852-1931)

Title: On the Riverbank
Date: 1890s
Technique: Oil on canvas
Signed: Lower right “M. Kirschner”

On the reverse: Label with the inscription “Au bord du ruisseau Marie Kirschner,” label of the Sächsischer Kunstverein zu Dresden no. 83, framer’s label “Konrad Barth & comp., Vergolderwaren-Geschäft, Munich.”

Painting dimensions: 101 × 125 cm
Dimensions with frame: 131 × 161 cm

Marie Louisa Kirschner was an important painter, glass artist, and decorator, born into a Prague-based Jewish, German-speaking family of landowners. She took private painting lessons with the renowned Josef Navrátil and August Piepenhagen. In Vienna, she studied with the landscape painter Anton Hansch. She first exhibited in Munich in 1871. In 1873 she began painting copies of works by Jules Dupré, and after moving to Paris with her family, she met the painter in person. According to legend, Dupré accepted her as his only pupil and stated that her copies of his paintings surpassed the originals.

In the 1880s she lived and worked in Berlin, where she moved among the artistic elite. In 1883 she traveled to Rome with her sister, where she met Zdenka Braunerová. Following her exhibition at Žofín, a note appeared in Světozor in 1879 describing her as a “landscape painter already well known and praised.” In 1886, Karel B. Mádl wrote in the journal Ruch (art supplement) that her decorative works abroad had received well-deserved recognition.

Her work is represented in the National Gallery in Prague, the West Bohemian Gallery in Plzeň, and her glass designs are held in collections in Passau and Kašperské Hory.