Maria Elisabeth Timmermann, b. 04.07.1746 in Hamburg, d. 13.04.1810 ibid., daughter of the Hamburg wine merchant Joachim Timmermann and his third wife, Elisabeth Negenborn.
The well-off businessman with the child-rich family was one of the influential people in Hamburg.
The painter Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder (1722-1789), who left Kassel during the French occupation in the Seven-year war and stayed in Hamburg, painted the family Timmermann on their property in 1758.
As a twenty-year old, Maria Elisabeth marries 1766 the wine merchant Johann Abraham de Boor (1732-1799). Their three children, Johanna Cornelia, Cäcilie Charlotte and Carl Friedrich, probably stayed in Hamburg when Maria Elisabeth, the painter, attended the Kunstakademie (art academy) in Kassel in 1777. Here, she meets again Tischbein the Elder, who is professor at the academy there. In October 1780, she obtains an honorary membership in that academy, and returns with the diploma to Hamburg.

"Die zu ihrer Zeit überaus geschätzte Künstlerin war besonders als Porträtistin anerkannt und malte treffliche Miniaturen. Auch hatte sie Klopstock, der mit ihr wohlbekannt war, in fast vollkommener Lebensgröße (Kniestück) dargestellt." (The artist, well appreciated in her time, was particularly respected for her portraits, and painted striking miniatures. She also painted Klopstock, with whom she was very familiar, almost lifesized (knee piece??).)[1]

Aside from the Altarpiece in the church of the Hamburg Orphanage, she created a number of paintings as well as plaster sculptures. After the death of her husband, she married 1801 the Lizentiat (Dr.) Friedrich Gerhard Vogel († 1814), who was a well known lawyer, and moved to Dockenhuden. In the country house there, built 1800, she lived with the three children, and died there in 1810.

"Auf dem von Tischbein dem älteren 1758 gemalten, in unserem Besitz befindlichen Timmermannschen Familienbild ist sie das Kind im gelben Kleide. Nach der Tradition ist der im Hintergrunde stehende Herr mit der Schnupftabaksdose der Maler selbst." (On theTimmermann family painting, done in 1758 by Tischbein the Elder and now in our possession, she is the child in the yellow dress. According to tradition, the gentleman in the background, holding a snuff-box, is the painter himself.) Albert de Boor (1852-1945)

The painting now belongs to the Neue Galerie Kassel.

[1] " Paul Th. Hoffmann: Die Elbchaussee. Ihre Landsitze, Menschen und Schicksale (The Elbchaussee; its country estates, people, and fates)

Erinnerungen aus der Jugendzeit (Childhood memories of) Albert de Boor

Archiv der Familie de Boor

Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein