Anna Waser

1678–1714, Zurich

The miniaturist and etcher, Anna Waser, came from a respected Zurich family. In the course of the excellent academic training she received from an early age she demonstrated not only her gift for languages (Latin and French), but also her artistic talents as a miniaturist and draughtswoman. She was given her first lessons in painting in Zurich by Johann Sulzer, under whose watchful eye the twelve-year-old made the touching self-portrait that is now in the Kunsthaus in Zurich. In Bern in the spring of 1692 Anna was apprenticed as the sole female pupil to Joseph Werner, in whose studio she remained until 1696. Having completed her training, she took up miniature painting in Zurich on her own initiative, achieving such renown in this discipline that she was appointed court painter to the Counts of Solms-Braunfels in 1699. Three years later the artist, who remained unmarried throughout her life, returned to Zurich, where she pursued a very successful and highly regarded career until her premature death in 1714 at the age of just thirty-five.