Bertha Müller

Bertha Mathilde Müller was an Austrian portrait painter.

Biography

Her father, Leopold Müller, was a surveyor who later became a lithographer. Her mother, Josefa née Bichler, was the daughter of a master furrier. She had nine siblings, four of whom died as children. Her brother, Leopold Carl, and sister Marie also became painters. Her sister, Josefine, married the painter Eduard Swoboda.
After her father's death, Leopold took care of his younger siblings, until the family's financial situation improved, around 1870. From 1877 to 1879, she attended the preparatory school at the Kunstgewerbeschule.
For ten years, from 1880, she and Marie worked in their brother Leopold's studio at the Academy of Fine Arts; taking additional lessons from him. There, they met August von Pettenkofen, who became a sort of mentor. He died in 1889, and left his studio to them in his will. They worked there until 1902, when they were evicted, then opened their own studio.
She also worked in Stuttgart, and was a member of the, from 1903 to 1907. She never became as well known as her sister, and exhibited little, although she participated in a showing in the rotunda of The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
In addition to her original portraits, she made several copies on behalf of Kaiser Wilhelm II, including one of his grandmother, Queen Victoria, which is now in the National Portrait Gallery, London.