Magdalene Margrethe Bärens (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

''Schäffer'') (30 September 1737 – 6 June 1808) was a Danish artist. She was one of the first professional female artists in Denmark, and the first woman to be elected into the

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Billedkunst Skolerne) has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. History The Royal Dani ...

. She was a flower- and

still-life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...

painter.

Biography

Bärens was born as the child of Elisabeth Hochkirch and the royal stable master and respected horse expert Johann Hermann Schäffer. She displayed an early talent in

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

, and her father, who assisted the sculptor

Jacques-François-Joseph Saly Jacques François Joseph Saly, also known as Jacques Saly (20 June 1717 – 4 May 1776), French-born sculptor who worked in France, Italy and Malta. He is commonly associated with his time in Denmark he served as Director of the Royal Danis ...

in illustrating the anatomy of horses, encouraged this, while her mother was very negative about her becoming anything else than a wife. After her marriage to the official Johan Georg Bärens in 1761, she initially stopped all artistic activity. However, she resumed it encouraged by the painter Vigilius Erichsen. In 1779, her paintings of flowers in

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...

where displayed for the Academy by a professor, and in 1780, she became the first of her sex to be elected to the academy. Bärens painted still-life paintings, especially flowers, and was appointed royal flower-painter by dowager queen Juliana Maria. To be able to paint flowers during winter, she installed a green house. In 1783 she sent two paintings to

Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

of Russia and was rewarded with a gold medal and 300 speciedukater. In 1788–1790, she visited

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and was much admired, but the import-laws stopped any success she could have had there. In Denmark, she unsuccessfully applied to the academy in 1795 for a vacant position there, and in 1796 for a residence at

Charlottenborg Palace Charlottenborg Palace ( da, Charlottenborg Slot) is a large town mansion located on the corner of Kongens Nytorv and Nyhavn in Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally built as a residence for Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, it has served as the base of the R ...

. As a widow in 1802, she was given a pension.

References

Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon
(In Danish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Barens, Magdalene 1737 births 1808 deaths 19th-century Danish women artists 18th-century Danish women artists 18th-century Danish painters 19th-century Danish painters Danish people of German descent Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts people Danish women painters