Catharina Elisabeth Heinecken

Christian Heinrich Heineken (1721–1725), engraved by Christian Fritzsch (1695–1769) after a painting by Catharina Elisabeth Heinecken.

Catharina Elisabeth Heinecken (1683 – November 5, 1757) was a German artist and alchemist and the mother of a celebrated child prodigy, Christian Heinrich Heineken.

Family

Born in Lübeck, she was the daughter of painter Franz Oesterreich [de] and the stepdaughter of another painter, Karl Krieg [de].[1] She married the painter and architect Paul Heinecken, and they had two children: Carl Heinrich von Heineken, an art historian and collector who was later knighted, and Christian Heinrich Heineken, a child prodigy known as "the infant scholar of Lübeck" who only lived to be four years old.[1][2]

Heinecken painted portraits and still lifes with flowers and fruit,[2] and she made crowns and wreaths, which she rented to wedding parties.[1][3] Her portrait of her son Christian Heinrich served as the template for an engraving by Christian Fritzsch [de] that was disseminated widely.[1] It is said that she was deeply interested in alchemy and used her fortune to pursue alchemical studies.[1] She died in Lützen.[1]

A portrait of Heinecken painted by Balthasar Denner is thought to have been destroyed during World War II.[1]

References

1. Vollmer, Hans (ed.), Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart (General Dictionary of Visual Artists from Antiquity to the Present). Vol. 16, p. 292; vol 21, p. 530; vol. 25, p. 575. Leipzig: EA Seemann, 1923.
2. "Carl Heinrich von Heinecken". Trionfi.com.
3. "Carl Heinrich von Heineken (1707-1791): His Origin and His Dresden Years". Carl Heinrich von Heineken Gesellschaft.