Julia Charlotte Mengs (c. 1730 – after 1806) was a German painter. Julia Charlotte was born in

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

, into the

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

family of Danish painter

Ismael Mengs Ismael Israel Mengs (1688–1764) was a Danish-born portrait and enamel painter of Jewish ancestry; active mainly at the court of Dresden. Biography His family was originally from Lusatia. He began by studying enamel painting with Benoît Le C ...

, a ''hofmaler'' (

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

) at the court of Saxonian-Polish electors and kings. She was the younger sister of

Therese Maron Therese Concordia Maron (née Mengs; 1725 – October 10, 1806), was a German painter. She was the elder sister of painter Anton Raphael Mengs. Life and work Mengs was born in the northern Bohemian town of Ústí nad Labem () into the Luthe ...

and

Anton Raphael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (12 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German Neoclassicism, Neoclassical painter. Early life Mengs was born on 12 March 1728, at Ústí nad Labem in the Kingdom of Bohemia, the son of Ismael Mengs, a Danish-born painter wh ...

, and also embarked on a career as a court painter. However, in 1765, she entered the Belvedere Convent in the

March of Ancona The March of Ancona ( or ''Anconetana'') was a frontier march centred on the city of Ancona and later Fermo then Macerata in the Middle Ages. Its name is preserved as an Italian region today, the Marche, and it corresponds to almost the entir ...

, taking the name of Sister Maria Speranda. She died there sometime after 1806. No work by Julia appears to have survived, although a pastel portrait of her traditionally described as being by her sister has sometimes been suggested to be a self-portrait instead.Profile
at the ''Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800''.

References

1730s births Year of death unknown German people of Danish descent 18th-century German painters 18th-century German women artists 18th-century German Roman Catholic nuns Sibling artists Nuns and art 19th-century German Roman Catholic nuns 18th-century German women painters {{Germany-painter-stub