Antonietta Brandeis is a Czech-born Italian painter who is best known for her landscape, genre and portrait paintings. Later on she also painted religious subjects for altarpieces

Born in Miskowitz, Austria, she studied under Karel Javurek in Prague before moving to Venice to become a pupil at the Academy of Fine Arts at the age of nineteen in 1867. Brandeis was one of the many artists to make the artistic pilgrimage to Venice during the 191th Century, due to the city’s attraction and its cultural history. During her time here Brandeis painted many of the famous landmarks, capturing the intricate details and vitality of the Renaissance architecture in Venice. Her work soon became very popular, as she provided visitors and tourists with mementos of their time in the city.

Brandeis was one of the first females in Italy to be enrolled into the Academy and receive formal training in the fine arts, which is a testament to her level of skill. She was taught by high profile figures such as Michelangelo Grigoletti, Napoleone Nani and Federico Moja. She went on to be awarded prizes and honours in Perspective and Life Drawing and was soon invited to exhibit in her first exhibition at the Societa Veneta Promotrice di Belle Arti.

In 1876 and 1877 she also exhibited in the Promotrice Veneta, selling to foreign collectors and thus successfully establishing herself an international reputation for her landscape paintings. However, after feeling her work was not appreciated for being of the same skill calibre as a man – as she was only praised as a woman, she began to sign her work under the name ‘Antonio Brandeis’.

Brandeis was a prolific painter and until 1893 painted and exhibited numerous works, primarily scenes of Venice, whilst residing in the city. She also travelled and painted in Verona, Bologna, Florence, and Rome, but her depictions of Venice were and still are the most sought after. Also during this period Brandeis is documented in De Gubernatus as a painter of religious altarpieces for a number of churches,

In 1897 she married the Venetian officer of the Crown, Antonio Zamboni and they settled in Venice where Brandeis continued to show at Italian exhibitions in Venicem Florence and Rome. She participated in the International Exposition of Watercolourists in Rome in 1906 with a “Study” and in the Società Promotrice delle Belle Arti in Florence in 1907 and 1908 with two oil paintings.

Today Brandeis’ work can be found in private collections across the world, as well as at the Innocenti Institute and the Gallery of Modern Art at the Pitti Palace in Florence, University of Virginia Art Museum, the Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery, the Revoltella Museum in Trieste and many more.