Anna Dorothea THERBUSCH (1721 - 1782) - Leda and the Swan after Correggio.

Anna Dorothea THERBUSCH (Berlin, 1721 - Berlin, 1782)
Leda and the Swan after Correggio.
Around 1775.
Oil on canvas.
H: 28; L: 19.5cm.

Already famous within the princely courts of the Holy Roman Empire, Anna Dorothea Therbusch undertook a trip to Paris in September 1766. In her capacity as painter to the King of Prussia, she benefited, despite her sex, from certain facilities in her rapprochement with the administration of the King’s Buildings. As proof, only a few months after her arrival in France, Therbusch was received by the Parisian Royal Academy of Painting as a “portrait painter” and participated for the first time in the Salon of the same year. While his genre scenes and portraits were exhibited, his historical painting, a Jupiter and Antiope, was rejected by the jury. Antiope's nude, considered indecent by commentators and more particularly Diderot, is explicitly stated as the cause of this eviction. This failure, perceived as a personal affront, and the difficulty of negotiating orders from the French public, pushed her to leave Paris in November 1768.

Back in his native country, Therbusch regains his former popularity. Between 1772 and 1775, she was commissioned by Frederick II of Prussia to execute several historical paintings for his residence in Sanssouci. Our work was undoubtedly produced during this period. Indeed, it is a very personal interpretation by Therbusch of a detail from Leda and the Swan by Correggio (Ill. 3. Gemäldgalerie, Berlin), a painting owned by Frederick II between 1770 and 1806.