Ottilie W. Roederstein: Catalogue raisonné of paintings

Ottilie Wilhelmine Roederstein (1859–1937), a native of Zurich, is a remarkable artist in many ways. Her works testify to an outstanding proficiency, while her story reveals how strategically she went about establishing her reputation as a painter. This is all the more remarkable in that, in the decades around 1900, the art market was still heavily dominated and managed by male protagonists. Roederstein’s technical proficiency is reflected in the versatility of her œuvre: in her own time she was particularly successful as a portrait painter, whereas today she is acclaimed above all for her numerous self-portraits. She engaged with other genres, too: still life, landscape, the nude, history and animal painting. There is, besides, a wide stylistic diversity in Roederstein’s art.

Estimates suggest that about 1,300 paintings await cataloguing by the team of scholars, who will systematically incorporate provenance data, references in literature and records of exhibitions. The project has been constructed around three self-contained sections. Sub-project 1 will compile a full, illustrated online index of Roederstein’s named, anonymous and self-portraits. Sub-project 2 will forge this corpus into a catalogue raisonné in both digital and printed form. Finally, sub-project 3 will produce an annotated inventory of the still lifes, landscapes, nudes, history paintings and paintings of animals. Taken as a whole, the project will thus result in a digital and printed catalogue raisonné of Roederstein’s entire painted œuvre. Upon completion all these research findings will be published at www.ottilie-roederstein.ch and on SIK-ISEA’s research portal, accompanied if possible by a printed publication.