Women Who Shaped the Impressionist World

One inherited a share of her father’s sewing machine fortune and went on to become an influential patron of the arts in Paris. She owned one of Venice’s most magnificent palazzi and championed such luminaries as Claude Monet, Igor Stravinsky, and Gabriel Fauré. The other married a wealthy Chicago businessman, wielded considerable influence over the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and, with her unerring eye for art, helped bring French Impressionism to prominence in the United States.

Winnaretta Singer and Bertha Honoré Palmer are just two of the pioneering women whose vision, influence, and cultural patronage helped shape the history of Impressionism. They take center stage in this special concert-reading, brought to life by acclaimed actress Barbara Auer.

Accompanied by music performed by the Viatores Quartet, soprano Mandy Fredrich, and pianist Matthias Samuil, the evening evokes the artistic and intellectual world of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Literary works by Marcel Proust, Paul Verlaine, Siobhan Hartsell, and others are interwoven with compositions by Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel, Johann Strauss II, and others, creating a richly atmospheric portrait of an era.

Women Who Shaped the Impressionist World
Winnaretta Singer, Bertha Palmer, and Their Era
January 17, 2027, 6 p.m., Nikolaisaal Potsdam

Reading: 
Barbara Auer

Viatores Quartet:
Louisa Staples, violin
Johannes Brzoska, violin
Miguel Erlich, viola
Umut Saglam, cello

Soprano
Mandy Fredrich

Piano
Matthias Samuil

A concert-reading presented in conjunction with the anniversary exhibition at the Museum Barberini.
A collaboration between Nikolaisaal Potsdam and the Museum Barberini.

Ticket holders receive discounted admission (€10) to the exhibition The Impressionists (November7, 2026–February 21, 2027) at the Museum Barberini. Admission is free for visitors under 18.