A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Wasser, Anna
WASSER, ANNA,
Was born at Zurich, in Switzerland, in 1679; being the daughter of Rodolph Wasser, a person of considerable note in his own country and a member of the council of Zurich. Anna had the advantage of a polite education; and as she showed a lively genius, particularly in designing, she was placed under the direction of Joseph Werner, at Berne. He made her study after good models, and copy the best paintings he could procure. After having instructed her for some time, on seeing a copy which she had finished of a flora it astonished him to find such correctness and colouring in so young an artist, she being then but thirteen years of age. She painted at first in oil, but afterwards applied herself entirely to miniature, for which, indeed, nature seemed to have furnished her with peculiar talents. Her works in that style procured her the favour of most of the princes of Germany; and the Duke of Wirtemberg, in particular, sent his own portrait and that of his sister to be copied in miniature by her hand; in which performance she succeeded so admirably, that her reputation was effectually established through all Germany. The Margrave of Baden-Durlach was another of her early patrons; and she also received many commissions from the first personages in the Low Countries. Though, by the influence of her father, she was prevailed upon to devote most of her time to portrait painting, yet her favourite subjects were those of the pastoral kind, in which she displayed the delicacy of her taste in invention and composition, in the elegance of her manner of designing and in giving so much harmony to the whole, as invariably to afford pleasure to the most judicious beholders. In all her subjects, indeed she discovered a fine genius, an exceedingly good taste, and an agreeable colouring. She died, unmarried, in 1713.