The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 13, 2025
A Scientist Seated at a Desk by Candlelight
1755
(German, 1721/22–1782)
Canvas: 100 x 81 cm (39 3/8 x 31 7/8 in.); Framed: 121.9 x 103.5 cm (48 x 40 3/4 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2023.1
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
Therbusch’s painting career began when she was in her 40s, after her children had grown.Description
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.- The painting had undergone several conservation campaigns before the acquisition by the CMA. Previous restoration treatments included structural and aesthetic interventions, including two separate linings, varnish removals, heavy overpainting and applications of pigmented amber varnish.
A recent conservation treatment performed by CMA conservators was designed to address these condition issues. Scientific analysis with scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the materials used in both the original painting and prior restorative interventions. Therbusch applied two ground layers over a medium to heavy weight linen canvas. The first ground layer applied to the canvas consists of mostly aluminosilicates and a yellow ochre pigment bound in animal glue. A second ground, light gray in color, was then applied over top of the first yellow ground layer. This light gray ground, bound in oil, was found to be composed of lead white, and iron-containing particles with small amounts of bone black. Analysis with X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) point analysis and SEM-EDS of cross sections found that the pigments used in the painting were consistent with that of the mid-eighteenth century and other paintings by Therbusch.
Technical imaging with infrared reflectography (IRR), X-radiography, and ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence (UV-VIS), were used to document the painting’s condition before conservation. UV-VIS was helpful in understanding the complex arrangement of prior restoration materials over the original paint layers. The X-radiograph revealed a previous tear running through the sitter’s hand along with other minor losses, notably around the edges. During removal of the most recent lining, the artist’s signature was uncovered on the reverse of the original canvas, see IRR of the reverse.
Tears and other minor losses were compensated with textured fills. These losses were then inpainted with conservation grade paint before a final application of varnish. - March 18, 1984Sale: Biarritz, 18 March 1984December 11, 1996Sale: London, Sotheby's 11 December 1996, lot 1771996-2023Collection of J.E. Safra (b. c. 1940), Geneva, SwitzerlandJanuary 26, 2023Sale: Sotheby's New York, January 26, 2023, lot 1492023-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Berckenhagen, E. "Anna Dorothea Therbusch (mit Werkverzeichnis)," Zeitschrift des Deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft, vol. 41, 1987. cat. no. 147Küster-Heise, Katharina. Anna Dorothea Therbusch, geb. Lisiewska 1721-1782 eine Malerin der Aufklärung ; Leben und Werk. 2008. cat. no. III-67Sotheby's (Firm), and |. Master Paintings, Part I. 2023. . lot 149 www.sothebys.com
- {{cite web|title=A Scientist Seated at a Desk by Candlelight|url=false|author=Anna Dorothea Therbusch|year=1755|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.1