Dora Johannsen was born in Lensahn, a small town south of Oldenburg in Northern Germany, in 1886. The later artist, who was fondly nicknamed ''Dolly'' as a child, lived a childhood coined by illness on the one hand, but yet grew up in a caring and loving home. She developed her great talent for drawing and painting from an early point on. The artist, who would later name herself Dorothea Johannsen, had lessons at the Hamburg Vocational Girls'' School and became an art teacher. A little later she commenced teaching at the Municipial Girls'' Schools in Schleswig. It was during these days, which were characterized by great freedom and self determination, that she met the painter and architect Emil Maetzel, whom she married in 1910. During the 1910s Dorothea Maetzel-Johannsen spent a lot of time in Berlin where her husband was in military service. In Berlin Lovis Corinth was one of her biggest mentors. After World War I the artist couple was active in the newly established movement "Hamburg Secession" and was part of the city''s blossoming art scene. As of the mid 1920s her paintings became more buoyant and joyful, which was owed to an extended stay in France where she was occupied with Impressionism, particularly with the art of Paul Cézanne. Landscapes, still lives with fruits and flowers, as well as figure paintings where among her preferred subjects. The artist died of a heart disease in 1930, just two days after her 44th birthday.