Words by Kathleen Langone, March 2025

The publication of the Amalia Kussner biography is a culmination of five years of research, first inspired by simply doing genealogy research since she was a distant relative. I knew that she grew up in an Indiana town, on the Illinois border, that was often a place to settle for German immigrants, which her parents were. I knew Amalia was a miniaturist painter and in addition I was told three facts about her by the grandmother. First that she painted the Prince of Wales (who was soon to be Edward VII), second that he gave her an emerald necklace and third that he was “sweet on” her. Therefore, most of my adult life I had only known that she had painted this one British royal – no one else particularly famous and then spent the majority of her life in Indiana. My first “clue” that this was certainly not the case, was finding an online article that she had written detailing her trip to St. Petersburg, to paint various members of the Romanov family, which included Czar Nicholas II. Though not an expert on this period in history, I knew enough that she was then seen as a prominent and talented artist at this time, to have had her services requested by the Russian monarchy.

I was then inspired to do a “deep dive” into her life and first searched on her name in my online newspaper subscriptions, including Newspapers.com. I found hundreds of articles about her and then expanded my searches to archival magazines that could be found online at the Internet Archive. I was soon to discover that she painted many of the Gilded Age greats, such as “queen” of the New York Gilded Age, Mrs. Caroline Astor and the woman who challenged her position, Alva Vanderbilt. The profile about her that began to emerge was a strong-willed woman who had a clear vision of what she wanted to accomplish. Her artistic ability could not be doubted but she was also a shrewd businesswoman, who charged excessive prices for her works, eventually equaling that to some of her male counterparts in the art world.

As evidence of her popularity in the waning years of the Gilded Age, close to 500 newspaper articles about her could be found in 41 of the then 48 states. Her career and personal life was however sometimes clouded by scandals and legal trouble. She did marry in 1900 into an established New York family but at best that union could be described as atypical for that day and age. Theirs was a childless union and she continued her portraits for another eleven years. Furthermore, her husband appears to have left his career as a lawyer and travel with his wife, to wherever her commissions took her.

Though to date, I have had a number of careers, this foray into writing a biography has truly been the most personally satisfying experience and a bit of a dream come true. I hope readers of this book will find her life both fascinating and a bit mysterious as her star burned bright in the heavens of the Gilded Age.