Herminia Borchard Dassel (born Herminia Borchard; 1821 – December 7, 1857), also known as Hermine Dassel, was a German-American painter, notable for her portraits and genre paintings.

Biography

Portrait of Abram Quary by Herminia Borchard Dassel

Early life and education

Dassel was born to a wealthy family in Königsberg, Prussia in 1821. Her father's job as a banker ensured her a privileged upbringing with an emphasis on education. Her father was bankrupted in 1839 and as a result her family lost their fortune, prompting Dassel to sell paintings to financially support her family. Later that year, she moved to Düsseldorf, Germany to study under

Carl Sohn Karl Ferdinand Sohn (10 December 1805 in Berlin – 25 November 1867 in Cologne) was a German painter of the Düsseldorf school of painting. Biography He was born in Berlin and started his studies at the age of eighteen under Friedrich Wilhelm ...

at the

Düsseldorf School of Painting The Düsseldorf school of painting is a term referring to a group of painters who taught or studied at the Düsseldorf Academy (now the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf or Düsseldorf State Art Academy) during the 1830s and 1840s, when the A ...

. Dassel left the Düsseldorf School of Painting in 1842 and continued to sell paintings, earning enough money so that she was able to study in Italy. There she painted a number of genre scenes, which gained her recognition throughout the United States and Europe. She was then forced to flee Italy because of the

Revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...

, settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1849.

Career and later life

Dassel found a great deal of success upon her arrival in the United States, with her work being displayed in the

American Art-Union The American Art-Union (1839–1851) was a subscription-based organization whose goal was to enlighten and educate an American public to a national art, while providing a support system for the viewing and sales of art “executed by artists in th ...

Boston Athenaeum Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most ...

, and the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

. In June 1850, the National Academy of Design selected her to be one of the first female honorary members. Dassel married her husband in July 1849 and had three children. She and her family moved to New York in 1850, where she earned her living by painting portraits of members of the upper classes. During this time, she used her personal art studio to become a painting instructor to girls from wealthy families in New York. In her time as a teacher, she was described as being well-liked by all and having a fervent passion for art. Dassel painted some of her most well-known portraits on a visit to Nantucket in 1851. She took a particular interest in the remaining Native American population on the island, painting the portraits of Abram Quary and Isabella Draper. At the time, Quary was thought to be the last fully

Wampanoag The Wampanoag , also rendered Wôpanâak, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island,Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. 17 ...

person living in Nantucket, and Draper was a young girl of Wampanoag descent. Dassel was also commissioned to paint astronomer

Maria Mitchell Maria Mitchell ( /məˈraɪə/; August 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889) was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI (modern designation C/1847 T1) that was later known as " Miss Mi ...

's portrait while she was in Nantucket.

Death

Dassel was reported to have been ill shortly before her death on December 7, 1857. She was buried in

Greenwood, New York Greenwood is a town in Steuben County, New York, United States. The population was 771 at the 2020 census. History A pioneer road was cut through the town in the 18th century, but no settlers remained in the town. The first permanent settler ...

. After her death, Henry T. Tuckerman arranged an exhibition and sale of her work, with the profits going toward her children.

Work

''An Italian Flower Girl,'' 1849 ''Mrs. John Taylor Johnston (Frances Colles) and Her Daughter,'' c. 1850s ''Mrs. James N. Paulding (Emily Pearson),'' c. 1850s ''Nantucket Indian Princess'' (originally titled ''An Indian Girl''), 1851in the Rhode Island Historical Society collection
''Portrait of Abram Quary,'' 1851 ''Portrait of Maria Mitchell,'' 1851 ''Ann Saltonstall Seabury (Mrs. William Walton),'' 1856 ''Ellen, Kezia and Mary Seabury,'' 1856{{Cite web , title=Ellen, Kezia and Mary Seabury , url=https://library.frick.org/permalink/01NYA_INST/cvgb5f/alma991000259509707141 , website=Frick Art Reference Library

References

American women artists 19th-century American women artists 1821 births 1857 deaths