Anna Maria van Schurman

November 5, 1607– May 14, 1678

Active in: Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark
Alternate names: Anna van Schurman

Biography

Anna Maria van Schurman was born into a wealthy family in Cologne on November 5, 1607. Her parents encouraged various intellectual and artistic pursuits, teaching her to read before she turned four years old. As a child, she studied Latin with her father and brothers, and she excelled at painting, paper-cutting, embroidery, calligraphy and woodcarving. Her classical and artistic education was unusual for a young girl at the time. As a young woman, she was in correspondence with professors of theology and philosophy. Over the course of her life, she would become fluent in fourteen languages, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French, Arabic, and Amharic. Her family moved several times during her youth, settling in Utrecht after the death of her father in 1626.

In the 1630s, van Schurman expanded her artistic ambitions and began to study engraving with Madgalena van de Passe (1600–1638). In 1634, she was invited to write a poem for the opening of the Universiteit Utrecht, then called Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht, and in 1636, she was the first woman to enroll in a course of study there, albeit unofficially. She was required to sit behind a screen or in a curtained booth in the lecture hall so that the other students could not see her. According to her contemporaries, she had an excellent command of mathematics, astronomy, and geography, in addition to her achievements in the classics and in the arts. Her treatises in Latin circulated among well-educated circles in Utrecht and she began to publish her work. She wrote extensively about the education of women, arguing that women should be educated in all disciplines but should not apply their education to professional activity, as this would interfere with domestic life. This was considered a radical position for her time.

Beyond her intellectual achievements, van Schurman continued to pursue artistic projects and was the first Dutch artist known to have completed a portrait in pastel. In 1643, she was awarded honorary admission to the St. Luke Guild of Painters in recognition of her accomplishments. By the early 1660s, van Schurman’s interests began to turn towards theological reform. In 1662, she met the defrocked French Jesuit priest Jean de Labadie (1610–1674). When Labadie settled in Amsterdam in 1669 to establish a non-denominational Christian separatist community, van Schurman sold her house and most of her library to join the group that would become known as the Labadists. In March of that year, she published a pamphlet denouncing the Reformed Church, causing an irreparable rift between van Schurman and many of her intellectual contemporaries.

The Labadists left Amsterdam in 1670, eventually settling in Altona, where their community operated a printing press. Followers of the Labadist movement called Labadie “Papa” and van Schurman “Mama”, although the two never married and are not known to have had a romantic relationship. Labadie died in 1674 and van Schurman followed the Labadists to a new community in the village of Wieuwed in Friesland. The scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) joined the Labadists in the 1680s. The community grew to over 400 and practiced detachment from worldly values, attempting to live communally and without private property. Van Schurman continued to engage in this theological work and to write until her death in 1678 at the age of 70.

Selected Works

A printed, oval bust-length self-portrait of the artist wearing seventeenth-century clothes, including an oversized, lace-trimmed collar. Her hair is pulled back and tied into a bun, embellished with beads. She looks out directly at the viewer with a neutral expression. She is identified by an inscription around the oval and another at the bottom of the sheet.

Anna Maria van Schurman, Self-Portrait, 1640. Engraving, 19.7 x 15.1 cm. Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

A bust-length, printed self-portrait of the artist wearing an elaborate dress with a lace collar. She wears her curly hair cut short in a bob with bangs. She looks at the viewer directly with a sidewards glance and a slight smile. Below her there is a scroll with an inscription.

Anna Maria van Schurman, Self Portrait, 1633. Engraving, trimmed along and within platemark, 16.6 x 15 cm. Rhode Island School of Design.

An oval portrait miniature of a man who looks out directly at the viewer. He wears black, with a white ruff at his collage. His hair is cut short above his pronounced ear, and he has a mustache and a beard that covers just his chin. The portrait is set in a simple black frame.

Anna Maria van Schurman, Portrait of Prof. Carolus Dematius, 1597-1651, ca. 1640. Silver pen charcoal on paper, 17 x 10 cm. Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

An oval portrait of a man wearing seventeenth-century clothes, including an elaborate lace collar. He wears his curly hair loose to his shoulders, with bangs, and he has a mustache twirled up at either end. An inscription runs around the oval to identify the sitter and the date.

Anna Maria van Schurman, Portrait of Paul Fleming, Poet and Doctor, 1640. Engraving, 9.8 x 7.7 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A bust-length, oval portrait of a man in seventeenth-century clothing with an oversized white collar. He looks out directly with a serious expression. His hair is combed forward, and he has a beard and a thin mustache. There is an inscription around the oval and another at the bottom of the page.

Anna Maria van Schurman, Portrait of Gisbert Voet, the Artist's Teacher, 1647. Etching and engraving, 37.9 x 28 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A printed bust-length portrait of a man in an oval, surrounded with a laurel. He is wearing seventeenth-century clothes and wears his curly hair loose to his shoulders. He looks out with a direct, neutral expression. Below him there is an inscription that identifies him.

Anna Maria van Schurman, Portrait of Dr. R. de Graaf, mid-17th century. Etching and engraving, 14.2 x 9 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A black chalk drawing of a bowl of fruit, seen from slightly above. Some fruits and flowers are outside the bowl, as though they are resting on an unseen table. There are two butterflies, two beetles, and a dragonfly on or around the fruit.

Anna Maria van Schurman, Bowl with Fruits, n.d. Black chalk. Fondation Custodia.

Continue Exploring

View artist timeline
Selected works

Circle

Student of
Magdalena van de Passe (1600–1638)

Affiliated with
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717)

Follower of
Jean de Labadie (1610–1674)

Bibliography

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