Susanne (The Artist's Daughter at the Age of Twenty-One)

Daniel Chodowiecki (1726-1801) was a Polish-German painter and printmaker known for his detailed etchings and drawings of Berlin social life that make him one of the most important chroniclers of the German Enlightenment. The portrait of his daughter Susanne from 1782 depicts the twenty-one-year-old in the refined, detailed manner that distinguishes Chodowiecki's best portraiture from the more formal portrait tradition of his contemporaries. The 1782 date places this in Chodowiecki's mature period, when he was producing both the detailed etchings of Berlin social life and the refined portraits that are his most accomplished works.

The portrait of Susanne is important in the history of German Enlightenment painting because it demonstrates the refined, detailed manner that Chodowiecki brought to portraiture as the most important chronicler of Berlin social life. Chodowiecki's portraits—combining the detailed observation of his etchings with the refined manner of portrait painting—represent the German Enlightenment at its most refined and observant, and the portrait of his daughter shows this combination in its most intimate form.

Portrait of Susanne is Chodowiecki's refined Enlightenment portraiture: the artist's twenty-one-year-old daughter rendered in the detailed, observant manner of Berlin's most important chronicler. The 1782 portrait combines the detailed observation of the printmaker with the refined manner of the portrait painter in its most intimate form.