Cleveland Museum of Art

A Scientist Seated at a Desk by Candlelight

Anna Dorothea Therbusch

Date

1755

Medium

oil on canvas

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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

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