In 1851, Julie Wilhelmine Hagen-Schwarz boldly wrote a letter to her parents, “I must, I want, I will […] achieve greater things than my sex usually does”. Through determination, she fulfilled this aspiration to become one of the most respected painters of her time. With over five hundred commissioned works, she is lauded as the first well-known female artist in Estonia. J. Hagen-Schwarz was born in Dorpat, to painter August Matthias Hagen (1794–1878) and Johanna Hagen, née von Paumgarten. As the eldest of nine siblings, J. Hagen-Schwarz should never have become a professional painter. Societal norms positioned her as the domestic assistant to her mother, and upon her marriage to the astronomer Ludwig Schwarz in 1855, she was expected to abandon her career to become a wife and mother. Viewed from this context, her professional success is remarkable and indicative of her talent and tenacity.
Her early career was stimulated by her father, the artist A. Hagen, who tutored her privately. In 1845, he assisted with her exhibition debut at Riga’s House of the Black Heads, a venue only available to male artists. Here, J. Hagen-Schwarz displayed five still-life floral pieces to great acclaim. Later, in 1845, her father secured for his daughter Riga’s Villebois art scholarship – a male-only award. This enabled J. Hagen-Schwarz to pursue further study abroad, first in Dresden and later in Munich. In Dresden she studied under Christian Friedrich Gonne (1813–1906) and undertook copyist work at the Old Masters Picture Gallery, a common practice for female artists.

Upon her arrival in Munich in 1847, J. Hagen-Schwarz transcended feminine pursuits to enter the professional art scene. In 1847, she enrolled in the female portrait school of Joseph Bernhardt (1805–1885), where she met her lifelong mentor, the artist Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802–1858). Under his tutelage, she began participating in exhibitions across Europe and acquired her own studio. One painting that captures her rising success was The Indian Prince (1849), a portrait of J. M. Rugendas in Brazilian garb, displayed at three separate venues: Münchener Kunstverein [Munich’s Art Association] in 1849, Kunstverein Augsburg [Augsburg’s Art Association] in 1850 and at the Raadi Manor, Dorpat, in 1850–1851. Her work even captivated royalty, with the daughter of Tsar Nicholas I, the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, providing a travel grant for her continued education in Rome (1851–1854). While there she studied under August Riedel (1799–1883), before returning to Dorpat in 1858.

During her international travels, her painting style expanded from a sentimental Biedermeier focus to realism. These cosmopolitan experiences meant she had one of the largest networks of any female artist at the time, with connections in Germany, Russia, Italy, France, the United States, Estonia and Finland. In 1858, J. Hagen-Schwarz was granted the title of Academician at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts – the first Baltic woman to receive this distinction. Her pioneering accomplishments meant that she not only “achieved more than her sex…” but paved the way for the next generation of female artists in the Baltics.