Catherine Engelhart
1845–1926 · Danish painter of portraits and genre scenes
Catherine Engelhart (Copenhagen, 1845 – Sèvres, 1926), also known as Catherine Amyot after her marriage, was a Danish painter who specialised in portraits and genre scenes. She travelled widely across Europe and left works of historical interest, which makes her an artist of international reach in the nineteenth century.
She first trained in Copenhagen with the Danish painter Carl Bøgh. From 1867 she went abroad to keep up with artistic developments, settling first in Brussels and then in Düsseldorf, where she studied with Benjamin Vautier and Karl Sohn. From 1869 she exhibited in Copenhagen and Düsseldorf, and in 1874 the Danish Art Society Kunstforeningen bought her painting Ingen roser uden torne. Commissioned by King Oscar II, she painted two posthumous portraits of Charles John as king of Norway.
In Paris she studied from 1876 under William-Adolphe Bouguereau, who considered her one of his best students. There she met the English doctor Thomas Amyot, whom she married in 1878. The couple settled in Norfolk and, from 1882, in London. In her later years she painted many genre scenes in which her daughter Catherine Florence served as the model.
Teachers and pupils
Studied with
- William-Adolphe Bouguereau 1825–1905
- Benjamin Vautier 1829–1898
- Carl Rudolph Sohn 1845–1908
- Carl Bøgh 1827–1893