Linder was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1797.[1][2] She was the daughter of painter Franz Lukas Linder and Anna Maria Dienast; the Linders were an established family of textile manufacturers in Basel.[1][3] Orphaned by age fifteen, her grandfather Johann Konrad Dienast-Burckhardt took her in and encouraged her talent for art.[4]
In 1824, Linder moved to Munich for artistic education.[2] While she visited the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, because she was a woman, she could not attend the academy herself.[1] Her primary teacher was history painter Joseph Schlotthauer.[1][5]
She traveled to northern and central Italy in 1825 with Schlotthauer and his wife.[2] Between 1828 and 1831, Linder lived in Rome and studied Italian paintings.[4] While in Italy, Linder befriended Johann Friedrich Overbeck, leader of the Nazarene movement of German Romantic Christian painters.[2]
In 1832, Linder settled permanently in Munich.[2] She became well-known as a painter and as an intellectual hostess of salons.[2]
Linder mostly painted anonymous devotional pictures and altarpieces, which she gave to destitute churches.[1] Though she was known for her paintings during her lifetime, her habit of not signing her paintings has concealed her impact in German religious painting. She also painted portraits of friends and nobility.
Her 1835 portrait of Brentano is widely used, though it is often uncredited.[1] Today, it is in the Munich Stadtmuseum.[6]
Linder used her wealth to collect and commission paintings by the Nazarenes and other, lesser-known painters.[1][2] She commissioned Schlotthauer to travel to Italy to copy Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper in 1834.[5]
Linder, Portrait of the Baroness von Eichthal, 19th century.
Linder was one of Brentano's main correspondents during his religious seclusion.[7]
Franz von Baader dedicated his "Forty Sentences from a Religious Erotic" to her in 1831.[2] In 1860, Ernst von Lasaulx dedicated his “Philosophy of Fine Arts" to her.[2]
In 1847, Linder donated her entire art collection, including many important Nazarene paintings, to the public art gallery in Basel.[1] Today, her works are in the Kunstmuseum Basel.[8]
She also donated a sizable fortune to the Catholic diocese in Basel, which enabled them to build the Church of St. Marien (Basel) [de], which was the first Catholic church built in Basel after the Reformation.[1][2]
Bischoff, Teresa and Karl Möseneder. Kunst Und Caritas: Leben Und Werk Der Kunstsammlerin, Mäzenin Und Malerin Emilie Linder. Schriftenreihe Des Erlanger Instituts Für Kunstgeschichte; Bd. 2. Petersberg: Imhof, 2014. (in German)
Braun, Patrick, and Axel Christoph Gampp. Emilie Linder, 1797-1867: Malerin, Mäzenin, Kunstsammlerin. Beiträge Zur Basler Geschichte. Basel: Christoph Merian, 2013. (in German)
Meier, Nikolaus. Stiften Und Sammeln Für Die Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel: Emilie Linder, Jacob Burckhardt Und Das Kunstleben Der Stadt Basel. Basel: Schwabe, 1997. (in German)
Jent, Verena. Emilie Linder, 1797-1867: Studien zur Biographie der Basler Kunstsammlerin und Freundin Clemens Brentanos, 1970. Dissertation. (in German)
Lehner, Philomena. Emilie Linder Und Ihr Freundeskreis, 1935. Dissertation. (in German)
^ abcdefghijklConzemius, Victor (November 27, 2008). "Linder, Emilie". Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (in German). Retrieved 2021-04-02.
^ abcdefghijklHistorische Commission bei der königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften (1883), "Linder, Emilie", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Bd. 18, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1. ed.), München/Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, p. 697, retrieved 2021-04-02
^Wichers, Hermann (November 27, 2008). "Linder". Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (in German). Retrieved 2021-04-02.
^ abHistorische Commission bei der königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften (1890), "Schlotthauer, Joseph", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Bd. 31, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1. ed.), München/Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, p. 554, retrieved 2021-04-02
