March 13, 2012
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Maria Elisabeth Georgina Ansingh (13 March 1875 – 14 December 1959), or Lizzy Ansingh, was a Dutch painter. She belonged to a school of female painters called the Amsterdamse Joffers.

Lizzy Ansingh was born in Utrecht. She was the daughter of Edzard Willem Ansingh, a pharmacist, and the painter Clara Theresia Schwartze. She was the granddaughter of Johann Georg Schwartze, also a painter, and a niece of the painter Thérèse Schwartze. It was her aunt Thérèse Schwartze who gave Lizzy her first lessons in drawing. Lizzy lived with her aunt for 16 years. She encouraged her niece to develop her artistic career and introduced her to numerous other painters, among others French impressionists and the famous Dutch painters George Hendrik Breitner, Piet Mondriaan and the lesser known Simon Maris.

During the years 1894 – 1897 Lizzy studied at the Amsterdam Royal Academy for the Visual Arts (Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten). Here she studied with the professors August Allebé, Nicolaas van der Waay and Carel Dake.

At the Academy a lasting friendship was born between a group of female painters, later called the Amsterdamse Joffers: Lizzy Ansingh, Marie van Regteren Altena, Coba Ritsema, Ans van den Berg, Jacoba Surie, Nelly Bodenheim, Betsy Westendorp-Osieck and Jo Bauer-Stumpff. The importance of the Amsterdamse Joffers lies primarily in functioning as role models for younger female painters in the Netherlands, especially during and after 1970s.

Besides portrait painting, Lizzy Ansingh gained celebrity for painting dolls, in which she was also encouraged by her aunt Thérèse Schwartze.

Lizzy also wrote two books for children, `n Vruchtenmandje (A little fruit basket), published in 1927, and Tante Tor is jarig (Aunt Tor has her birthday). This booklet, published in 1950, was illustrated by Nelly Bodenheim.

Ansingh was a member of the (still existing) Amsterdam art circles Arti et Amicitiae and Sint Lucas. She died in Amsterdam on 14 December 1959.