Lot number 2502 - Auction 150
PORTRAIT DER MALERIN HILDEGARD LEHNERT (1931)

OTTILIE WILHELMINE ROEDERSTEIN 1859 Enge - 1938 Hofheim PORTRAIT DER MALERIN HILDEGARD LEHNERT (1931) Tempera on canvas. 61 x 46 cm, R. 80 x 65.5 cm. Monogrammed and dated upper right. Verso: remnants of an old adhesive label and illegible stamp. Part. minimally with colour chipping, at lower margin part. minimally rubbed and rest. Frame. Literature: Rök 1540, with illustration. In this impressive portrait, Ottilie Wilhelmine Roederstein portrays her artist colleague Hildegard Lehnert with a fine sense of character and posture. The sitter sits leaning strictly into the right arm of an armchair, holding three brushes in her right hand - a deliberate reference to her profession and her self-positioning as an active artist. Roederstein does not show Lehnert as a sentimental figure, but as a confident, self-assured woman with a clear gaze and controlled presence. Hildegard Lehnert (1857-1943), herself a painter, photographer, author and for decades headmistress of the renowned art school of the Association of Berlin Women Artists, meets the viewer here with a firm, focussed gaze. Her alert eyes and slightly tense mouth speak of discipline, experience and inner determination. Her hair is coiffed back, her beige blouse with a black bow and her dark artist's smock emphasise her professional attitude. Roederstein depicts Lehnert not only as a woman, but also as a serious, creative personality - as a colleague at eye level. The portrait was painted around 1931 - at a time when Roederstein and Lehnert met again after decades in old age. This late reunion lends the picture a quiet intimacy that goes beyond mere external representation. It is characterised by mutual respect and a biographical depth that is subtly reflected in the concentrated composition and Lehnert's serious gaze. The muted colour palette in shades of brown, grey and black lends the picture a calm atmosphere, which is emphasised by the static pose. This tension between motionlessness and inner intensity is characteristic of Roederstein's mature portrait art, with which she moved between academic tradition and modern individualisation. Ottilie W. Roederstein, who was one of the most successful portraitists in Europe in her day and had built up an independent life as an artist, treats her friend and companion with great respect in this work. The two met around 1880 in Karl Gussow's studio in Berlin - one of the few places where women could receive professional artistic training at the time. Both later acted as mentors for subsequent generations of female artists and were committed to the equality of women in the art world. This portrait is therefore not only a character study, but also a quiet act of recognition of two women artists who fought for their place in art history despite social resistance.