Johanne Mathilde Dietrichson (née Bonnevie) is generally recognized as the first Norwegian woman to receive a formal art education. She is also known as Mathilde Dietrichson and Mathilde Bonnevie Dietrichson. She was likely one of the few women of her day who continued to work as an artist after marrying. During her studies, she specialized in portraits and genre paintings including those she produced in the 1860s and 1870s which represent her most notable contributions to the history of Norwegian art. Dietrichson began her artistic career at a private school of drawing in Christiania (now Oslo). She was talented, and on the recommendation of the well-known Norwegian painter Adolf Tidemand she went to Düsseldorf to study in more depth. At that time, women were not admitted to the city’s art academy as students, but from 1857 to 1861 she took private lessons from the German history painter Otto Mengelberg. The first time one of her paintings was shown at an exhibition was at Christiania Kunstforening in 1858. Mathilde married Lorentz Dietrichson in 1862. They went to Italy for their honeymoon, visiting Copenhagen and Berlin on the way. The couple traveled often throughout Europe and to the Far East. Many of the motifs that appear in Dietrichson’s paintings reflect their travels. The couple lived in Rome from 1862 to 1866. The couple’s only child, Honoria, was born in Rome in 1863, and she went on to became one of Norway’s first woman doctors. Dietrichson did not produce many paintings during this period in Italy; however, this bust self portrait at age 28 is one. Against a tan background, she turns to look at us from right profile with sympathetic light grey eyes. Her pale narrow face is accented with pink cheeks, bulb nose, and supple red lips. Hair brown-black hair is parted in the middle, tousled, and curly. She wears a charcoal dress with a white lace collar and a center front brooch plus a black pearl double necklace, the outermost with large pearls.
Selvportrett (Self-portrait) by Johanne Mathilde Dietrichson, née Bonnevie (Norwegian) - Oil on canvas / 1865 - Oslo Museum (Norway) #WomenInArt #ArtText #WomanArtist #SelfPortrait #art #JohanneMathildeDietrichson #MathildeBonnevieDietrichson #OsloMuseum #WomensArt #FemaleArtist #MathildeDietrichson
