biography of Herminia Borchard DASSEL (c.1821-1857)

Birth place: Königsberg, Prussia

Addresses: NYC, from 1849

Profession: Genre and portrait painter

Studied: Düsseldorf Acad. with Carl Sohn, c.1839-42

Exhibited: American Art-Union (1849 to 1851, as Miss H. Borchard and as Mme. Dassel); NAD (1850-1857, as Mrs. Hermenia Dassel)

Member: NAD (one of the first women to be elected an hon. mem., professional, 1850-1857)

Work: Nantucket Hist. Ass"n

Comments: She became a professional painter after her father, a wealthy banker, lost his fortune in 1839. She studied in Düsseldorf and spent several years in Italy; but when the 1848 Revolution broke out, she emigrated to Philadelphia in 1849 (against the pleas of her family). By c.1850, she had married and set up a studio in NYC. She had three children and enjoyed a successful career, best known for her portraits of children and her Italian genre scenes. In 1851, she traveled to Nantucket where she painted two portraits of Abram Quary, who was then regarded as the last full-blooded Native American on Nantucket Island (he was not). She died suddenly just when her reputation was growing. Known also as Miss H. Borchard.

Sources: G&W; Crayon, V (1858), 26-27; Cummings, 271; Cowdrey, NAD; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Swan, BA; Rutledge, PA; Washington Art Assoc. Cat., 1857; Rubinstein American Women Artists, 53-54; add"l info. courtesy Nantucket Hist. Ass"n.