The Roederstein-Jughenn-Archive
in the Städel Museum

As part of the scholarly processing of the Roederstein-Jughenn Archive, the artist’s correspondence, reviews of her exhibitions and a large proportion of the photographs from her estate are currently undergoing digitalization. The multifaceted historical material provides insights into the private circumstances of an artist who, despite many personal challenges and historical upheavals, succeeded in earning a living with commissioned works over a period of more than sixty years. They also document the marriage-like relationship cultivated for many decades by two financially independent women who enjoyed the high regard of society. Above all, however, they reflect the wide-ranging contacts of an artist who—active in Switzerland, France, and Germany—managed to maximize her commercial success by means of a cleverly developed social network.

The correspondence includes letters between Roederstein and Winterhalter, her family and close confidantes such as Anna and Tilly Edinger and Pauline Haeberlin, artists such as Cuno Amiet, Carolus-Duran, Jean-Jacques Henner, Dora Hitz, Alexej von Jawlensky, Ludwig Meidner, Sigismund Righini, Annie Stebler-Hopf, the amateur photographer Jeanne Smith and writers such as Wilhelm Schaefer and Julia Virginia Laengsdorff. The archive moreover comprises the manuscripts of Roederstein’s biographer Hermann Jughenn as well as his correspondence with owners of her works. This material documents Jughenn’s preliminary work on the catalogue raisonné that was to document (and to a large extent illustrate) 1,800 works by the artist, including some 980 paintings. Approximately 700 exhibition reviews published from 1883 onwards supplement the material intended for the catalogue.