Isolde Wagner
1865–1919 · daughter of Cosima Liszt and wife of conductor Franz Beidler (no paintings documented)
Isolde Wagner (born Isolde von Bülow, 1865-1919) was the daughter of Cosima Liszt and, according to the most widely held account, of the composer Richard Wagner, whom her mother married in 1870. The sources consulted do not document any painting activity or visual work by her, so her significance lies mainly in her family life and in the disputes that marked the Wagner clan.
Born in Munich, she was recognised as a daughter by Hans von Bülow, her mother's first husband, and so she initially bore his name. In 1900 she married the Swiss conductor Franz Beidler, and the couple lived at Colmdorf, near Bayreuth, and later in Munich. Their son, Franz Wilhelm Beidler, born in 1901, was celebrated as Richard Wagner's first grandchild.
Her relations with her mother and her brother Siegfried deteriorated from 1906 onwards. In 1914 she lost a lawsuit against Cosima over the inheritance, in which the court did not recognise her as Wagner's daughter. Weakened by tuberculosis, she died in 1919.