German Artist: Josef Bernhard Einsle

Portrait miniature by Josef Bernhard Einsle depicting a Napoleonic Era German lady, seated on a chair with a calico cat on her lap and kniting materials on a table to her side

Napoleonic Era* German Lady, Seated on a Chair
with a Calico Cat on Her Lap and Knitting Materials
on a Table to Her Side

German
dated May 1, 1812
by Josef Bernhard Einsle (1774-1829)
(signed obverse, right edge, "Einsle pinx: d: 1 Mai 1812")

2 9/16 inches diameter (sight)

watercolor on ivory; housed under glass in a gilt metal surround that
was likely originally set within an ebonized wood frame

(*When this portrait was painted, German states were under the control of Napoleon's French Empire.)

About the Artist: Joseph Bernhard Einsle was born in 1774, in the Bavarian town of Göggingen, a suburb of Augsburg. He is well known for his portraits of middle class subjects in touching scenes of everyday life, but he also painted more important subjects, such as Leopold II, 1747-1792 (Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia and Hungary 1790-1792) and the King of Wuerttemberg (dated 1803). According to Blättel, he exhibited at the Academy Engine (Vienna) and was a painter to the court of Vienna. He is known to have lived and worked in Göggingen, Constanz at Lake Bodensee, Vienna, Frankfurt, Munich, and Augsburg. He died in Augsburg in 1829, at the age of 55. Listed by Benezit, Blättel (pages 326, 327) and Schidlof (page 233).