Bertha Wegmann (1847–1926) was a Swiss-Danish portrait painter, renowned for breaking barriers in an era when women faced significant obstacles in accessing formal art education.

At the age of 19, Wegmann began her artistic training in Copenhagen, albeit with second-rate instruction from lesser-known artists such as Frederik Ferdinand Helsted, Heinrich Buntzen, and Frederik Christian Lund. Women at that time were generally excluded from studying with the top-tier art masters, leaving them with limited opportunities.

Wegmann herself reflected on this challenging experience, recalling in her own words:

"Well, Father wanted me to learn how to paint, and so he placed me with the history painter F.C. Lund! A terrible place to put me – frankly! […] God have mercy, he treated me poorly! ‘Fool! Idiot! Mindless individual!’ were just a few of the words constantly hailing down on me."

Seeking better opportunities, Wegmann relocated to Munich, where she studied under Wilhelm von Lindenschmit the Younger and later Eduard Kurzbauer. Eventually, she moved to Paris and enrolled at the École de Dessin et Peinture pour Femmes, a progressive art school for women led by Madame Trélat de Lavigne. This school, highly regarded by Nordic artists, offered women access to prominent masters like Léon Bonnat (1833-1922), Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904), and Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884). It served as a forward-thinking alternative to the École des Beaux-Arts, which did not admit women until 1896.

Over her career, Wegmann won numerous accolades and made history by becoming the first woman to hold a chair at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

This is one of the about 20 portraits Wegmann did of Jeanna Bauck.
'Portrait of the Swedish painter Jeanna Bauck' (1887).
31.5 x 49.2cm, oils on canvas.
Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen, Denmark.

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