Emilie Preyer was the daughter and pupil of the celebrated still life artist Johann Wilhelm Preyer (1803-1889), and it was he who was to be her greatest influence. She was noted for still-life paintings, like her father, and was renowned for the fine quality and high attention to detail in her work. Characteristically, her paintings would often include one or more insects, perhaps a beetle, centipede, or maybe even a fly, reminiscent in many ways to the work of the much earlier Dutch artist, Balthasar van der Ast, (1590-1656). Accompanying the red and white grapes, berries, peaches and various other fruit, would sometimes be a glass of freshly poured champagne complete with bubbles bursting into life as they reach the top of the glass.

Emilie worked with wonderfully vibrant colours and to such realistic effect that the standard of her work can never be surpassed.

Her works can be found in museums in: Germany, Karlsruhe; New York, Metropolitan Museum and Philadelphia, Picture Museum.


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Bibliography: E. Bénézit “Dictionnaire des Artistes”
Philip Hook and Mark Poltimore “Popular 19th Century Paintings”