An emancipated and accomplished woman of the late 19^th century, the German novelist Ossip Schubin (born Aloisia Kirschner, known as Lola) was, in her day, one of the most successful authors of popular literature in Europe. 

Born in Prague in 1854 to a wealthy Jewish family, she was well educated. After her father’s premature death, Ossip Schubin traveled, at an early age, through the European cultural capitals (including Berlin, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Brussels, and St. Petersburg) with her mother and her sister, Marie Kirschner (an artist who became known for her Jugendstil glasswork, of which The Daulton Collection owns a number of fine examples). And in her travels through the intellectual circles of the European salons, Ossip Schubin discovered and developed a personal literary talent, resulting in the prodigious output of more than 40 novels and other books over the course of her life, beginning in 1882 at age 28 with her first novel Ehre [Honor]. She took her nom de plume, Ossip Schubin, from a character in a novel by the Russian author Ivan Turgenev, who she had met in Paris. A keen observer with a gift for striking characterization and sarcastic wit, Schubin was known for her clever description of international fashionable aristocratic society in Europe as well as of artistic bohemianism. Although she was a celebrated author during her lifetime, Ossip Schubin’s popularity declined after the First World War, and her work was quickly forgotten after her death in 1934 at age 79 at Kosatky Castle (Schloss Kosatky) near Prague.

Karl Gussow (1843-1907) was a German painter, who was particularly important for his role as a teacher in a series of academic posts in Weimar, Karlsruhe, Berlin (where he painted this portrait), and, finally, from 1883, Munich; his most famous student was the symbolist artist Max Klinger (who dedicated his print portfolio Dramen to Gussow). In style, Gussow was an exacting realist, known especially for his portraiture, but he transcended the genre and verisimilitude in this penetrating portrait of Ossip Schubin.

Ossip Schubin sat for her portrait at age 33, when her novels, set in the milieu of European high society, were already achieving great success. In Gussow’s portrait, Schubin has an aura about her, a quiet energy. And with her clear, spell-binding gaze, she appears mystical and enigmatic – like an apparition. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that the painting was acquired by Elisabeth (Lili) Kolisko (1889-1976) of Vienna, a student and colleague of the esotericist Rudolf Steiner, who was herself an important figure in anthroposophy, the scientific exploration of the spiritual world, and who believed in the transformative power of starlight.

-- Jack Daulton

From 1888 to 1914, Marie Kirschner and her sister Ossip Schubin were noted salonnières in Berlin:

"Die Schwestern Kirschner ließen sich im Jahre 1887 in Berlin nieder.  Sie fanden schnell Anschluß an die Künstler- und Literatengesellschaft Berlins und wurden von der Gräfin Maximiliane von Oriola protegiert.  Marie Kirschner schloß enge Freundschaft mit der Malerin, Schriftstellerin und Salonnière Marie von Olfers.  Die "Donnerstags-Tees" der Schwestern Kirschner wurden beliebte Treffpunkte der Berliner Salongesellschaft; häufig fanden in Atelier Marie Kirschners in der Steglitzer Strasse an diesen Donnerstagen kleine Konzerte statt. Bis zum Vorabend  des Ersten Weltkriegs bestand diese künstlerische Geselligkeit. Den Sommer verbrachten die Schwestern meist in Böhmen; während Marie Kirschner bis 1914 die übrige Zeit in Berlin wohnte, scheint Ossip Schubin sich, zumindest in den letzten Jahren, seltener in Berlin aufgehalten zu haben."  Petra Wilhelmy, Der Berliner Salon im 19. Jahrhundert (1780-1914) (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1989), pg. 702

["The Kirschner sisters settled in Berlin in 1887. They quickly made contact with Berlin's artists' and writers' society and were protected by Countess Maximiliane von Oriola. Marie Kirschner became close friends with the painter, writer and salonnière Marie von Olfers. The Kirschner sisters' "Thursday teas" became a popular meeting place for Berlin salon society; small concerts often took place in Marie Kirschner's studio on Steglitzer Strasse on Thursdays. This artistic conviviality lasted until the eve of the First World War. The sisters spent most of the summer in Bohemia; while Marie Kirschner lived in Berlin the rest of the time until 1914, Ossip Schubin seems to have spent less time in Berlin, at least in recent years."]