Testimonials

Birgitte painted my daughter’s portrait and I was told at the time that she was not the easiest subject to “capture”! The end result was however a triumph and the picture has been greatly admired ever since. Birgitte produced a wonderful likeness and I would heartily recommend her to anyone considering commissioning a portrait.

– Sir John Ropner, Yorkshire, UK

Birgitte Knaus painted me in our apartment in Paris in 1976. We all love her work and the portrait is now since 30 years the centre-piece in our living room. Not only is she a great artist, but also a wonderful friend. Over the years, her work gets even better.

– Princess Barbara of Yougoslavia-Liechtenstein, Paris, FR

Birgitte Knaus painted all my seven children as well as myself, and I found her not only to be a rarely perceptive, intuitive and highly talented, but also an amiable and inspiring person. We have all been extremely pleased with the excellent portraits in each one of which she has been able to capture the personality of the individual she has painted. I do recommend her as one of the finest portraitists I have come across.

– Elisabeth Stangenberg-Haverkamp, Surrey, UK

My family and I are indeed most fortunate to have known Birgitte Knaus since the summer of 2000. She has done the most splendid portraits of my three younger grandchildren. She has also done a charming portrait of my rather elderly husband and also a sketch of his hands which are still quite beautiful for a gentleman of his age. Birgitte’s work is truly exquisite, delicate and refined. Great perfection. She is one of the most important portrait painters of our time! She is also a very devoted friend of ours.

– Baroness Joyce von Bothmer, Oyster Bay, Long Island N.Y.

…deine Bilder sind nach wie vor so gut wie am Anfang und werden sehr bewundert – wie könnte es anders sein!

– Prince Casimir Wittgenstein Berleburg, Hamburg, GER

Ich liebe das Bild, das Birgitte 1978 von mir und meinen drei Töchtern gemalt hat. Mein Bild hängt bei mir im Salon und wird von allen bewundert.

– Fürstin Marianne Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, München, GER

Birgitte Knaus painted a portrait of me and my family recently. Not only did I like the portraits very much, but I also found her to be reliable and pleasant to be with. She worked quickly and efficiently, and was a pleasure to have around.

– Georg von Opel, St. Moritz, CH

I have known Birgitte Knaus since we met in Ibiza in late 1970s. We later commitioned her to do a portrait of my first wife. We were both very happy with the outcome of this portrait. Birgitte was at the time working towards an axhibition and asked if I would be prepared to sit for a portrait. I was more than happy to agree and am now looking at the result hanging on the wall of my office as I write this note. She is in my opinion a very skilled portraitist who has an uncanny knack of getting likenesses.

– Michael, The Viscount Cowdrey, Cowdrey Park, West Sussex, UK

I met Birgitte Knaus in 1979 in Monte Carlo, where she had just finished a portrait of Lady Petersham. I liked the portrait so much, so that m first husband and I decided to commission Birgitte to do a life size portrait of mine, which we executed in our summer house in Ibiza. We were so pleased with the finals result that consequently, Birgitte started a life size portrait of my first husband. Again it turned out very well. I regard B.K. as a very talented and skilled painter. She is a master of getting the likeness of people and her work in details is superb. We also became good friends ever since.

– Ellen Lady Northampton, Ibiza, ES

And the press …

TOWN & COUNTRY MAGAZINE JULY 2001
THE 10 IN- MOST PORTRAIT PAINTERS
Explorers of the invisible – Seekers of the Soul

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BLICK  Newspaper – Germany

with Farah Diba – Empress of Iran 1978

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Birgitte’s skill with a crayon enchanted the Persian Empress.
ST.MORITZ (GR) – The Austrian/Spanish painter Birgitte Knaus (26), sister of Kurt Jürgen’s current companion Marlene, made an exclusive professional acquaintance with grease crayon and easel. In St. Moritz, she painted portraits of Empress Farah Diba and her children. During the ‘sessions’, the Shah’s wife allowed the artist to look behind the imperial scenes. Model Farah Diba revealed that she writes her own fairy tales for her princes and princesses and also illustrates her stories.

 

IBIZA TODAY
Holding the mirror up to Nature

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IBIZA LIFE
Birgitte Knaus – A court painter of modern days

In past times, when photographs did not exist, people depended on artists to capture a visual representation, such as from people, important buildings, and landscapes, to rescue those memories for future generations and centuries ahead. Particularly court portrait painters were highly treasured and recognized personalities in society. Even today it remained a tradition and it is valued as something very special to be portrayed by an artist.

Birgitte Knaus is such an accomplished artist. Her reputation of an outstanding portrait painter spread rapidly, opening her doors of many famous homes, palaces and castles throughout the world.

She inherited her talent from her late father Robert Knaus. This versatile and flexible artist, who first travelled to Spain where he met his wife Elena, and later travelled to Venezuela then to Chile and who eventually returned with his family back to Europe, was a recognized realistic painter. His family, his wife and three daughters Birgitte, Marlene, Renate and his son Tilman, (who is also a talented artist), travelled with him and lived in many different countries, collecting new impressions and learning different languages.

Birgitte was born in Bilbao/Spain and returned from South America to Europe in 1963. After finishing school in Spain, she went to study portraiture with the artist couple Werner Schramm in Duesseldorf/Germany, who furthered her talent and trained her as a private pupil, just like in the good old days. Soon after her artistic career started in 1967, when art lovers and connoisseurs discovered her talent, and she started receiving her first commissions. The renowned and famous sky resort St. Moritz in Switzerland was a focal point in her early days and her international reputation spread rapidly from there throughout Europe, to the Middle East, Far East and the USA. Here she met families where it is tradition to own a painted portrait. At the latest when Birgitte was invited and commissioned by the late Shah of Persia’s family The Empress Farah Diba Pahlavi and her four children, did she realize she was now an established artist, although this turned out to be a very unusual commission. That year, while the Shah and his family were on Sky holidays in their villa in St. Moritz, he received a menacing letter from the feared terrorist Carlos, and therefore had to succumb to a very strict security check. Not only was she checked to her teeth, but also her painting material and easel were closely examined before she was permitted to start with her work. Two bodyguards alternating each day, questioned her in an unobtrusive way, during her sitting sessions with the children and the Empress. By the time it was the Shah’s turn to sit for his portrait, he was unable to sit for her, as he and his family had to succumb to the threats of the terrorist and had to have an untimely and unexpected departure, long before their vacation was over. That year 1974/75 St. Moritz was also the host for the Olympic sky jumping tournament, and the Swiss police could no longer guarantee for him and his family’s security.

Her clients have included many members of the royal and noble families of the world, head of state and political leaders, magnates of business and industry, celebrated entertainers, and numerous other well-known personalities. We find names such as the Begum Salimah Aga Khan and her three children, the Furstenberg’s, the Liechtenstein’s, zu Sayn Wittgenstein Sayn, zu Sayn Wittgenstein Berleburg, the Ysenburgs, Prince Victor Emanuel of Savoy, his wife Princess Marina and his son Filiberto Emanuele, Pricess Barbara of Yougoslavia, the Hohenbergs, the von Hessens, the Flick Family, the president Marcos’s family in the Philippines, film actor David Niven, Jazz composer Isaac Hayes and many more.

As it is important to get to know her subjects well for her portraits, she often spends several weeks in their homes. When one sees her portraits, one could think she means it very well with her sitters, as she has a particularly positive attitude towards her clients. They seem mostly beautiful people. Having pointed this out to her, she replied laughingly “I just choose the best side of people’s personalities, everyone can recognize them, they are just seen from their best angle. We all have a choice of focusing either on the negative or on the positive side of people. It is a matter of attitude; I just choose the latter and that is the result.” Birgitte’s portraits glow with a special lightness and radiance. The overall impression is of fluidity and freshness. Not only does she capture a clear and immediate likeness, but one is able to sense the inner essence of the person portrayed.

After her father’s death in 1975, Birgitte was looking for a new home for her and her family in her native country Spain. She travelled to the island of Ibiza on the Mediterranean sea, fell in love with the island and acquired the villa of the late author The Viscount Robin Maugham, (nephew of the well-known writer and novelist Somerset Maugham), and who was also a member of the house of Lords in London.

In those days she was living in Paris and later in the South of France near Monte Carlo and was constantly travelling on commissions around the world. In those days there was hardly any time for her to install herself and relax in her new home in Ibiza. Instead, her mother lived there and enjoyed the house on the seaside and the wonderfully warm climate, while Birgitte lived for the longest period of time in London /England. From 1999 to 2003 she finally spent a few years in Ibiza.

After having sold her home in Ibiza she now lives in Barcelona.

Birgitte works in a number of mediums but is best known for her life-size portraits of adults and children in pastel, or in a combination of charcoal and sanguine (terracotta) When undertaking a commission, Birgitte usually travels to the client’s home or another convenient location. Another difference to her old colleagues of past centuries is that she doesn’t live for years in one royal court, quite the contrary. Her destiny takes her to different parts of the world, particularly to the USA at the moment. Great part of her job consists in getting several commissions into a pool, travel to that destination and do them over several weeks or months.

Her continued success marks her as an international artist of outstanding merit.

Interview for magazine Ibiza Life, April 2001 by Jeanine Rehlinger