A Scientist Seated at a Desk by Candlelight

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Museum

A Scientist Seated at a Desk by Candlelight

1755

ArtistAnna Dorothea Therbusch (German, 1721/22–1782)

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Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 100 x 81 cm (39 3/8 x 31 7/8 in.); Framed: 121.9 x 103.5 cm (48 x 40 3/4 in.)
Classification: Painting
Style: P - German before 1800
Institution: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit: Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Market Intelligence

Observed sale facts, comparable evidence, artist index history and modeled research remain separate.

Public evidence

Last known price—0 matched observed sales

Observed median—

Observed sales0

Artist index—

No rights-cleared normalized observed sale is attached to this artwork. No synthetic price history is shown.

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Comparable Sales

Same-artist public sales ranked by medium, creation year, dimensions and sale recency.

Evidence ranked

No public-rights comparable sales meet the current evidence criteria. RELICT does not fill the table with research-only or licensed-only facts.

Provenance

Public

March 18, 1984

Sale: Biarritz, 18 March 1984

December 11, 1996

Sale: London, Sotheby's 11 December 1996, lot 177

1996-2023

Collection of J.E. Safra (b. c. 1940), Geneva, Switzerland

January 26, 2023

Sale: Sotheby's New York, January 26, 2023, lot 149

2023-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Source provenance text

Sale: Biarritz, 18 March 1984 Sale: London, Sotheby's 11 December 1996, lot 177 Collection of J.E. Safra (b. c. 1940), Geneva, Switzerland Sale: Sotheby's New York, January 26, 2023, lot 149 The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

The Cleveland Museum of Artconfidence 100%

Exhibitions

Public

No rights-cleared exhibition history is published.

Sourced Overview Evidence

Candlelight subjects were unfashionable in Paris where Anna Dorothea Therbusch nonetheless submitted one for candidacy to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. She was denied one of three positions allotted to women artists on the grounds that a woman could not have painted such an accomplished work. Therbusch agreed to be observed painting by the male committee and was admitted to membership on her second attempt.

The Cleveland Museum of Artconfidence 100%

Evidence state

0 observed sales · 0 comparable sales · 5 structured provenance events · 0 structured exhibitions.

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