Following initial artistic instruction at the Hanau Drawing Academy, Bertuch (née Sommerhoff) moved to Zurich. There she continued her training in the studio of Eduard Pfyffer, where she met Ottilie W. Roederstein and Lou-ise Catherine Breslau. In the 1880ies she went to Paris to study with the famous painters Carolus Duran and Raphaël Collin. From 1890 onwards she lived with her husband in Frankfurt, where she and Roederstein ran a women’s studio for painting. Bertuch spent her summer months regularly in the Fontenay-aux-Roses artists’ colony near Paris. An independently wealthy artist, she rarely participated in exhibitions.
