Clara Julia Elisa von Rappard (19 May 1857,

Wabern bei Bern Wabern, or Wabern bei Bern, is a village in the municipality of Köniz in the Swiss canton of Bern. Situated some from the centre of the city of Bern, it can be considered a suburb of that city. Wabern is served by Wabern bei Bern railway stat ...

- 12 January 1912,

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

) was a Swiss painter. She worked in a wide variety of genres and materials including illustrations, etchings and murals, although she is best known for landscapes and portraits.

Biography

She was the only child of

Jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and Albertine Engell (1832–1922) of

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label=Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin ...

, the younger sister of the writer and women's rights activist . Her father also operated a

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...

institute (presumably related to

forensics Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and crimina ...

) and was co-owner, with his brother Hermann Gisbert von Rappard (1814–1902), of the on

Lake Brienz Lake Brienz (german: Brienzersee) is a lake just north of the Alps, in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It has a length of about , a width of and a maximum depth of . Its area is ; the surface is above the sea-level. It is fed, among others, by ...

. She spent her formative years in Wabern bei Bern, then in

Interlaken , neighboring_municipalities= Bönigen, Därligen, Matten bei Interlaken, Ringgenberg, Unterseen , twintowns = Scottsdale (USA), Ōtsu (Japan), Třeboň (Czech Republic) Interlaken (; lit.: ''between lakes'') is a Swiss town and mun ...

. Extensive travelling throughout Europe with her parents gave her an acquaintance with art and culture. Her artistic inclinations made themselves apparent at a relatively early age, and she was immediately given formal lessons. From 1868 to 1869, she studied with Dominik Skutecký in Venice, from 1870 to 1871 with

Heinrich Dreber Heinrich Dreber, known as Franz-Dreber (9 January 1822, in Dresden – 3 August 1875, in Anticoli Corrado), was a German landscape art, landscape painter. Biography Living in the house of a relation whose name Franz he adopted, he frequented t ...

in Rome, from 1871 to 1874 with and

Carl Steffeck Carl Constantin Heinrich Steffeck (4 April 1818, Berlin – 11 July 1890, Königsberg) was a German painter and graphic artist. He was especially well known for his paintings of horses and dogs. Life He was the son of a "gentleman of independ ...

in Berlin and, from 1875 to 1885 in the women's art school operated by

Karl Gussow Karl Gussow (25 February 1843, Havelberg – 27 March 1907, Munich) was a German painter and university professor. Life and work His early inclination to art was encouraged by his family so, as soon as he completed his secondary schooling, he wa ...

. In between, she also took lessons from ,

Friedrich Kaulbach Theodor Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Kaulbach (8 July 1822 – 17 September 1903) was a German painter from Bad Arolsen, Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont. His father was Christian Kaulbach (1777–1847), a cabinet maker in Arolsen. ...

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...

, and at the school in the

Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin __NOTOC__ The Kunstgewerbemuseum, or Museum of Decorative Arts, is an internationally important museum of the decorative arts in Berlin, Germany, part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums). The collection is split between the ...

. During the 1880s, she also studied

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

with

Ludwig von Gleichen-Rußwurm Heinrich Ludwig Freiherr von Gleichen-Rußwurm (25 October 1836, Castle Greifenstein in Unterfranken - 9 July 1901, Weimar) was a German impressionist painter and graphic artist who was one of the pioneers of that style in Germany. He was a gra ...

. Other artists who participated, to a greater or lesser degree, in her education included

Adolph von Menzel Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (8 December 18159 February 1905) was a German Realist artist noted for drawings, etchings, and paintings. Along with Caspar David Friedrich, he is considered one of the two most prominent German painters of th ...

Paul Friedrich Meyerheim Paul Friedrich Meyerheim (13 July 1842 – 14 September 1915) was a German painter and graphic artist. He did portraits and landscapes, but is best known as a painter of animals. Life Paul Friedrich Meyerheim was born in Berlin on 13 July ...

Arnold Böcklin Arnold Böcklin (16 October 182716 January 1901) was a Swiss symbolist painter. Biography He was born in Basel. His father, Christian Frederick Böcklin (b. 1802), was descended from an old family of Schaffhausen, and engaged in the silk tra ...

and

Eugène Burnand Eugène Burnand (; 30 August 1850 – 4 February 1921) was a prolific Switzerland, Swiss Painting, painter and illustrator from Moudon, Switzerland. Born of prosperous parents who taught him to appreciate art and the countryside, he first trained ...

. For a brief period in the mid 1880s, she operated her own studio in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. She exhibited widely throughout Western Europe and the United States, although she focused on German speaking areas. She held several solo showings there, including ones at the

Kunsthalle Bremen The Kunsthalle Bremen is an art museum in Bremen, Germany. It is located close to the Bremen Old Town on the "Culture Mile" (german: Kulturmeile). The Kunsthalle was built in 1849, enlarged in 1902 by architect Eduard Gildemeister, and expanded ...

(1894), (also 1894) and the

Kunstmuseum Bern The Museum of Fine Arts Bern (German: ''Kunstmuseum Bern''), established in 1879 in Bern, is the museum of fine arts of the de facto capital of Switzerland. Its holdings run from the Middle Ages to the present. It houses works by Paul Klee, Pab ...

(1896). She took second place at the German Exhibition in London (1891) and received a gold medal at the International Women's Exhibition (also in London, 1900). She died in 1912, from pneumonia, following a long illness.

Sources/Further reading

* Jules Coulin: ''Clara von Rappard. Das Leben einer Malerin.'' Basel 1920. * ''Rappard, Clara von.'' In: ''Käthe, Paula und der ganze Rest: Künstlerinnenlexikon.'' Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen, Kupfergraben, Berlin 1992, , pg.133 * Magdalena Schindler: ''Clara von Rappard (1857–1912). Anspruch und (Selbst-)Inszenierung einer Künstlerin.'' Ungedruckte Lizentiatsarbeit, Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität Bern, Bern 1995. * Magdalena Schindler, Walter Bettler: ''Clara von Rappard - eine Künstlerin zwischen Natur und Phantasie (1857–1912).'' Interlaken 1997. * Carola Muyser (Ed.), "Auftrag der Gesellschaft Clara von Rappard" in: ''Clara von Rappard - Freilichtmalerin 1857-1912''. Exhibition catalog, March-Sept. 1999, Museum Schloss Jegenstorf and , Bern 1999,

External links

* *
Website of the Gesellschaft Clara von Rappard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rappard, Clara von 1857 births 1912 deaths Swiss painters Swiss landscape painters Swiss women artists