Caroline Bardua

Caroline Bardua was born in Ballenstedt, Anhalt-Bernburg. She was the daughter of Johann Adam Bardua, the valet of Alexius Frederick Christian, Duke of Anhalt-Bernburg, and Sophie Sabine Kirchner. Her first art instruction came from 1805 to 1807 under Hans Heinrich Meyer in Weimar. In Weimar she was also an acquaintance of the author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose portrait she drew. From 1808 to 1811 she, together with Louise Seidler, was a student of Gerhard von Kügelgen in Dresden. In his workshop she and other students produced copies of paintings. She also became acquainted with Anton Graff and the then unknown Caspar David Friedrich. After the end of her apprenticeship with Kügelgen, Caroline and her sister, the singer Wilhelmine Bardua, traveled together to Paris and Frankfurt. In 1819 the two sisters, who remained unmarried for their entire lives, arrived in Berlin, where they led a Salon. One of the guests was the poet August Friedrich Ernst Langbein. At first Caroline's work was much in demand in Berlin, but that situation soon changed for the worse. An exhibit in 1822, in which Caroline's works were shown together with works by Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, was one of the main causes of her downfall. Her portraits of Princess Alexandrine of Prussia, the prince and other family members were harshly criticized in comparison with paintings by Schadow, who unlike Bardua had received academic training. In 1827 the two sisters had to give up their residence in Berlin for financial reasons. They then led an itinerant lifestyle, frequently moving between small cities such as Heidelberg or Krefeld, avoiding any competition. Both of the sisters continued to live together. After the death of Caroline in 1864 Wilhelmine published a biography of her sister and then died a year later in 1865. The biography, Das Jugendleben der Malerin Caroline Bardua was first published posthumously in 1874.

Bardua was primarily a portrait painter. The subjects of her portraits include Caspar David Friedrich, Carl Maria von Weber, Julius Eduard Hitzig, Niccolo Paganini, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, his wife Christiane von Goethe, and Johanna Schopenhauer.