Henryka Beyer

A bouquet of flowers in a vase by Henryka Beyer, National Museum, Warsaw, 1827

Henryka Beyer (7 March 1782 in Szczecin – 24 October 1855 in Chrzanów) was a German painter active in Poland. The youngest sister of Wilhelm Henryk Minter, an architect.

Initially taught by painter Petera Schmidta from Szczecin. In 1805 she moved to Berlin with her brother Charles Frederick and studied under the Director of the KPM (Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur), Gottfried Wilhelm Volker.

In 1811 Beyer moved to Warsaw, where she was trained by Antoni Brodowski. In 1813 she married the director of the Warsaw lottery John Gottlieb Wilhelm Beyer (died 1819), moving from the Lutheran faith to Calvinism. They had three sons, in 1818 was born the youngest Charles Adolf. Early widowed, Beyer had to maintain three sons and in 1824 in Warsaw opened a school of painting and drawing for women. She ran it until 1833. She painted still lifes, mostly watercolors, usually in dark warm colors. Beyer initialed her works HKA.

She is buried in the cemetery next to the children of Calvinist in Warsaw (q E, row 3, No. 13). The poet Stanisław Jachowicz honored her memory with the following lines for her obituary: Prosta jak kwiatek, co go malowała/W niebiańskie strojny klejnoty,/Prawda w jej słowie, a w czynach jej – chwała,/W życiu zachęta do cnoty (Simple as a flower, as it painted / W heavenly adorned with jewels, / The truth in her words and her actions - glory, / In the life of an incentive to virtue).

References

• Wladyslaw Janiszewski, in Polish Biographical Dictionary. T. 1 Krakow: Polish Academy of Learning - Main Ingredients in bookstores Gebethner and Wolff, 1935, p 478 Reprint: Department of National Theatre. Ossolińskich, Kraków 1989, ISBN 8304034840
• Hedwig and Eugene Szulcowie, Evangelical Reformed Cemetery in Warsaw, Warsaw, 1989