Sophie Sperlich Virtual Museum

Sophie Sperlich (1863-1906) was a well-known artist in Munich, her home town.

Although not much information is available about her, she was a popular artist painting both dogs and cats. 

Her paintings are in the same style as those of Julius Adam and Henriette Ronner-Knip. She is the spouse or daughter of Hans Sperlich (1847-1931) from Würzburg, also a painter.

Many of her works were used as postcard illustrations.

There are currently 473 known or claimed works (as per May 25, 2026). This online collection contains all known paintings and is continuously updated if new paintings are found.  Throughout the years, these paintings have been found at auctions and in postcard collections. At auction houses, her paintings are found in Germany, France, Austria, the USA and Turkey.

The postcard collections have been issued around 1908 by German American Novelty Art Series New York, The American News Company, K&B D., S. Dutton & Co. New York, Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ernest Nister London, Woolstone Bros. London, A. Ackermann Kunstverlag München and S. Langsdorf & Co. New York. 

It is to be believed that some claimed Sophie Sperlich paintings are in fact not genuine. This becomes obvious by different techniques, different style, different base material, odd formats. The original paintings in small format are all oil on oakwood, so any other material (cardboard, plate) must be examined carefully.

We suspect that this online collection has at least 20 works where we have doubts about the originality. We are currently identifying these works and they will be displayed in a separate group.

A notable style in Sophie Sperlich's work are a few antropomorphic paintings where we see cats in various setting depicted as humans. These antropomorphic paintings are rarely seen at auctions and if, they are sold for considerable prices. The highest price known for regular paintings was 'The Dachshund', sold in 2007 at Christie's in Amsterdam for $9735.  

In her work, we can see an evolution in the way the cats are painted. We see rougher images with bolder brushstrokes, but also a series of highly detailed images. This is clearly evident in the ‘Serie 2 Cats’. Although the works are not dated, we assume that these are earlier and later works respectively.

All paintings are signed 'Sophie Sperlich, München'. Some are signed 'A. Dreher München', probably a pseudonym. Most paintings are oil on oakwood or oil pastel. The majority is small format of ca. 16x21 cm. Few larger paintings are oil on canvas.

Some of the wood panels contain the stamp of the art store 'Adrian Brugger, Theatiner Str. 1 u. 3 München'. 

Acknowledgements:

Special thanks to Jean Ritsema, who has provided many pictures of her postcard collection. Thanks also to Boris Wilnitsky Fine Arts in Vienna for his pictures.

Further research:

If you have any further information about Sophie Sperlich of if you know of pictures missing from this collection, please get in touch. If you have any questions or inquiries about the collection, feel free to contact us.