The first biography of the remarkably independent-thinking writer of the late Enlightenment. Highly educated, passionately interested in art and literature, and curious about people: Friederike Brun was an important networker around 1800. In her homes in Copenhagen and Rome, renowned artists and intellectuals from all over Europe, such as Angelika Kauffmann, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and Carl Ludwig Fernow, gathered. She was acquainted with Johann Gottfried Herder, Karl Viktor von Bonstetten, Friedrich von Matthisson, Jens Immanuel Baggesen, and other famous figures, and she supported artists like Bertel Thorvaldsen and Antonio Canova. Her art-critical works made significant contributions to the art and cultural debates of her time, and her literary output includes autobiographical writings, travel descriptions, and poetry.