A Scientist Seated at a Desk by Candlelight (1755): Art, History and Details

A Scientist Seated at a Desk by Candlelight (1755) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Anna Dorothea Therbusch (German, 1721/22–1782).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Candlelight subjects were unfashionable in Paris where Anna Dorothea Therbusch nonetheless submitted one for candidacy to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. She was denied one of three positions allotted to women artists on the grounds that a woman could not have painted such an accomplished work. Therbusch agreed to be observed painting by the male committee and was admitted to membership on her second attempt.

Object facts

• Title: A Scientist Seated at a Desk by Candlelight
• Date: 1755
• Creator attribution: Anna Dorothea Therbusch (German, 1721/22–1782)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Canvas: 100 x 81 cm (39 3/8 x 31 7/8 in.); Framed: 121.9 x 103.5 cm (48 x 40 3/4 in.)
• Collection: P - German before 1800
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2023.1

A detail from the museum

Therbusch’s painting career began when she was in her 40s, after her children had grown.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Berckenhagen, E. "Anna Dorothea Therbusch (mit Werkverzeichnis)," Zeitschrift des Deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft, vol. 41, 1987.
• Küster-Heise, Katharina. Anna Dorothea Therbusch, geb. Lisiewska 1721-1782 eine Malerin der Aufklärung ; Leben und Werk. 2008.
• Sotheby's (Firm), and |. Master Paintings, Part I. 2023. .

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.