Lot 272 Dα

The painter and young woman depicted in this picture was born Ernestine Mack in Hanau in 1869. She was one of the few women of the 19th century who were able to build an artistic career in Germany. She first studied in Karlsruhe and soon after in Munich, where she was particularly impressed by Franz von Lenbach and his portraiture. In 1894 she took part in the spring exhibition of the newly founded Munich Secession with a portrait of a lady, which she signed "Mack-Schultze". Shortly before, Ernestine had married Paul Schultze-Naumburg, an architect, painter and publicist who belonged to the artistic avant-garde and modernist movement at the time. In the mid-1890s Ernestine and her husband Paul opened a private painting school in Theresien-Straße in Munich. In 1897, the couple moved to Berlin and also ran a painting school there in Potsdamer Strasse. Both joined the newly founded Berlin Secession in 1898, but separated two years later and Ernestine moved to Italy. Here she married the physician Alberto Orlandini around 1903/04 and lived in Florence from then on. She then signed her works with Ernestina Orlandini. A later self-portrait came into the collection of artist portraits of the Uffizi.
The present work probably shows the painter at the age of 29.
On the reverse label of an exhibition with the number 55.