Works by Julie Wilhelmine Hagen-Schwarz

Julie Wilhelmine Hagen-Schwarz, a Baltic German painter chiefly of portraits, was taught early by her father, the painter August Matthias Hagen, and in 1858 became the first Russian woman the Imperial Academy of Arts elected.

After the University of Dorpat she studied in Dresden under Friedrich Gonne, then in Munich, where she worked in Moritz Rugendas's workshops. Three years later she was back in Tartu, and a further grant, from Tsar Nicholas I, took her to Italy; her father went with her, hoping the climate would help his failing eyesight. From 1850–54 come St Peter's Basilica in Rome, its dome hazy above green trees, and a watercolour of an Italian woman with a tambourine in red sleeves and a wine-coloured skirt.

She came home in 1854, already known from exhibitions around Europe, and soon married the astronomer Ludwig Schwarz; their honeymoon was an expedition to south-east Siberia, where she sketched along the way. In the self-portrait of 1855 she looks round at us from a painted oval, dark hair parted in the middle above a white collar. In all she painted more than 700 portraits.

Sources: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), Tartu Art Museum's painting collection, Tartu Art Museum's watercolor collection.