Maria Katharina Prestel

Llangollen Bridge , print by Maria Katharina Prestel after John George Wood from 1793

Gypsies on a common , print by Maria Katharina Prestel after George Morland

Maria Katharina Prestel b. Höll (born July 22, 1747 in Nuremberg , † March 16, 1794 in London ) was a pastel and watercolor painter , engraver and etcher .

Life

Maria Katharina Höll was the eldest daughter of Thomas and Maria Höll. The father was a trader and the family belonged to the Nuremberg patriciate . In her youth, Maria Katharina Höll was taught drawing and miniature painting, probably by the portrait painter Leonhard Fischer, although it is not known how long the lessons lasted or how thorough it was. Höll's interest in art was only tolerated by his parents.

From 1769 Höll was a student of her future husband Johann Gottlieb Prestel . The training with him encompassed the entire artistic spectrum, including art theory, study according to nature, drawing skills, various painting techniques and the techniques of printmaking. Höll and Prestel were married on July 20, 1772.

In 1773, the couple's first of four children was born. Of these, the only daughter, Ursula Magdalena Reinheimer (1777–1845), later became best known as a painter.

The marriage opened up a professional career as an artist for Maria Katharina Prestel. The couple founded a workshop in which they specialized in the reproduction of hand drawings. The Prestels mainly used the aquatint technique , which was very popular in Germany at the time, in combination with various mixed techniques. The advantage of the aquatint technique was that it was quick to learn, the way of working came close to working with drawings or watercolors, and the creation was quicker than copper engraving.

Between 1776 and 1785, the Prestels jointly published the portfolios of Praunsches Kabinett (1776–1780), Schmidtsche's Kabinett (1779–1782) and Kleines Kabinett (1782–1785). These portfolios were collections of reproductions from collections of originals that were created on a subscription basis. Such portfolios became popular in the 18th century as they enabled the upper class to build up a collection.

The economic success of their workshop was not enough and the Prestels had to leave Nuremberg. Maria Katharina Prestel was the first to go to Frankfurt am Main alone in 1782 . She was supported in this change by Heinrich Sebastian Hüsgen , a friend of the family. In Frankfurt she lived with the painter Christian Georg Schütz the Elder. Ä. (1731–1791) and worked as a copper engraver. A year later, husband and children followed with the workshop to Frankfurt.

Johann Gottlieb Prestel was a difficult husband. Allegedly because of his moods and debauchery, Maria Katharina Prestel separated from her husband in 1786 and went to London, which was then the center for reproduction graphics. There she worked as a reproduction engraver, a. a. for John Boydell (1719–1804) and the Molteno & Colnaghi publishing house. Her two youngest children Ursula Magdalena and Michael followed her for a while. The London part of the family financially supported the family members who remained in Frankfurt.

Maria Katharina Prestel died in London in 1794.

literature

• Sabine Russ, Matthias Kunze: Dreer (Dreher; Dreyer), Gabriel. In: General Artist Lexicon. = Artists of the World. AKL online. de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2004ff., ISBN 978-3-598-41800-6 , Doc-ID: 20014795.
• Claudia Schwaighofer: The graphic work of Maria Catharina Prestel (1747–1794). Master's thesis, Faculty of History and Art, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich 2003. ( PDF ; 704 kB)
• Joseph Kiermeier-Debre / Fritz Franz Vogel (eds.): Art comes from Prestel. The artist couple Johann Gottlieb and Maria Katharina Prestel. Frankfurt ǀ London. Catalog of works of the Kunsthalle Memmingen. Böhlau, Cologne 2008, 224 S, ISBN 978-3-412-20249-1