Barbara Rosina Lisiewska-de Gasc Lot n° 53

Barbara Rosina Lisiewska-de Gasc Allegory of the sense of hearing Oil on canvas (relined). 96 x 134 cm. Framed in gilded wooden frame (106.5 x 143 cm). Signed lower right: peint par Rosine. Provenance Auction Frederik Muller & Co, Amsterdam 25/28. 2. 1941, lot 822 - Dr. Sigmund Wassermann, Amsterdam. - C.F. van Veen, Amsterdam (on behalf of Dr. Wassermann). - Gallery de Boer, Amsterdam. - Nuremberg Municipal Museum. - Handed over to the Dutch state after the 2nd World War. - Museum Het Markiezenhof, Bergen op Zoom (on loan from the Dutch state). - Restituted to the heirs of Dr. Sigmund Wassermann in 2008. - Sotheby's, London 5.12.2013. - German private collection. Berlin, early 18th century, the art scene is still manageable, but develops rapidly and - surprisingly - also with the participation of female artists. Anna-Rosina Lisiewski and her sister Anna Dorothea, who was eight years younger and later married Therbusch, were the most important protagonists. Born in 1713 as the third child of the portrait painter Georg Lisiewsky, who worked at court, she was part of the Berlin art scene from the very beginning. Three years earlier, Antoine Pesne had taken up his position as court painter here. He was to remain so during the reigns of three kings and was to be the focal point of the art world in Berlin and Potsdam for a very long time. Georg Lisiewsky initially taught both daughters himself, as the art academy was not open to women. Antoine Pesne continued their education. Anna-Rosina remained particularly attached to this young 18th century art scene, so much so that she even turned down a call to Dresden in 1734. She did not want to give up the studio partnership with her father just yet. Instead, she brought Berlin's painters even closer together when she married the Prussian court painter David Matthieu in 1741. Anna-Rosina Lisiewsky also found the models for her portraits at the Prussian court. These were mainly members of the high nobility, but she also paid attention to other female artists. In a group portrait entitled "Galante Gesellschaft", she depicts herself and the ballerina Barbara Campanini, also known as "Barberina", alongside Margrave Friedrich Heinrich and Margravine Leopoldine Marie von Brandenburg-Schwedt (privately owned). She is a star of cultural and social life. She made her debut at the royal opera in 1744, having been poached by Frederick II from her engagement in Paris and during a tour, and became the best-paid artist in Prussia. The "Flying Goddess", as Barbara Campanini was known not only in Berlin, sat as a model for various painters as a stage star: Rosalba Carriera was probably the first to paint her while she was still in Paris. A new portrait by the Prussian court engraver Georg Friedrich Schmidt was recently identified in Berlin. It does not show her dancing, but holding a musical instrument, a tambourine. The model for this was the large, elaborately staged portrait that Antoine Pesne painted for Sanssouci Palace on behalf of the king. It depicts the "Barberina" in a garden in a prancing pose, accompanied by a young man with a bagpipe in the background. Anna-Rosina Lisiewsky's light-footed movement between portrait painting and genre-like insights into courtly life also characterizes the present allegory of the sense of hearing. The lady with the lute is probably once again the famous "Barberina" - or at least inspired by her. The fine facial features, the dark hair and the brown eyes, but above all the dress with the appliquéd flowers, which can be seen very similarly in all the portraits of the Campanini, suggest this. But here she is playing the music. With the theorbo in her hand, an extended form of a baroque lute, she sets the tone and becomes the main character in Lisiewsky's composition. She has thus attracted the attention of a young man in the background. Both are looking directly at the viewer. The gesture of his right hand not only refers to the theme of listening, it is also an invitation to listen - and perhaps also to join in the harmony and turn the forthcoming duet between the two into a trio, as the theorbo was often used as an accompanying instrument for singing. There are records of parties that took place in "Barberina's" apartment near today's Pariser Platz. However, it was certainly also important for the portrait painter to demonstrate her own skills, which she had honed over the course of her career, to capture her sitters sensitively and make their characteristic features visible.