A Space of Their Own

Maria Katharina Prestel

July 22, 1747 – March 16, 1794

Active in: Germany and England
Alternate names: Catherine, Katerine, Katharina; maiden name Höll

Biography

Born Maria Katharina Höll in 1747, Prestel was a pupil of the Nuremberg-based printmaker Johann Gottlieb Prestel. They married in 1769 and working alongside him, Prestel became a skilled printmaker herself, primarily in aquatint and etching. Together they had a daughter, Ursula Magdalena Prestel, born in 1777. In 1786, Prestel separated from her husband and moved with her daughter to England.

It was in London that Prestel found success and admiration for her large landscape prints. She produced aquatint prints after works by Dutch, German, and Italian masters, as well as reproductions of important landscape paintings by Thomas Gainsborough. She died in London in 1794, and her daughter moved to Brussels where she made a career for herself as an artist.

Selected Works

An elderly man with a lined face, balding head, and loosely-draped tunic sits on the ground and leans on one elbow. The entire image has an aqua-blue tint to it.

Maria Katharina Prestel after Giorgio Vasari, Diogenes, 1779. Aquatint and soft-ground etching printed in green and black, 18.3 x 26.4 cm. National Gallery of Art, 1948.11.272

A sepia-toned image of a nude, bearded manreclining on a throne. A large bird with spread wings sits at his feet, and one hand appears to be holding fire or flames.

Maria Katharina Prestel after Giulio Romano, Jupiter, 1781. Aquatint and etching in dark and light brown, 25.2 x 18.2 cm. National Gallery of Art, 1948.11.268

A small road leading toward a wooded area is depicted in sepia tones. Along one side of the road is a small rocky rise, and two of the nearest trees appear to be standing dead with no leaves and stripped bark.

Maria Katharina Prestel after Herman Saftleven, Wooded Landscape, 1782. Etching and aquatint with color, 28 x 24 cm. British Museum

A sepia-toned image depicting two boats, one larger with multiple masts and one smaller with a single mast and two oars, in the foreground. In teh distance, several more boats with tall masts and sails are visible without much detail.

Maria Katharina Prestel after Willem van de Velde the Younger, Seascape, 1782. Etching and aquatint, 16 x 23 cm. National Gallery of Art, 1948.11.291

Two young people kneel in front of a pair of gravestones in a run-down churchyard. Two goats are grazing nearby, and the church just beyond appears to be partially collapsed and ruined.

Maria Katharina Prestel after Thomas Gainsborough, Country Churchyard, 1790. Aquatint, 51.8 x 62.6 cm. Yale University Art Gallery, 1952.15.47

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Selected works
 

Circle

Wife of
Johann Gottlieb Prestel

Mother of
Ursula Magdalena Prestel

Bibliography

Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Bio-bibliographischer Indez A–Z. Munich: Saur, 1999–2000.

Bénézit, Emmanuel. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et gravures de tous les temps et de tous les pays. Paris: Gründ, 1999.

CLARA. “Maria Katharina Prestel.” https://wayback.archive-it.org/2972/20181114153352/http://clara.nmwa.org/index.php?g=entity_detail&entity_id=6786.

Greer, Germaine. The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1979.

Kiermeier-Debre, Joseph, and Fritz Franz Vogel. Kunst kommt von Prestel das Künstlerehepaar Johann Gottlieb und Maria Katharina Prestel. Cologne, 2008.

RKD. “Katharina Prestel.” https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/343147.

Royal Academy. “Katharina Prestel (1747–1794).” https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/katharina-prestel.

Schwaighofer, Claudia-Alexandra. Die Kunst der Nachahmung: Dürer, Carracci und Parmiagianino in den Reproduktionsgraphiken der Nürnbergerin Maria Katharina Prestel (1747–1794). Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2006.

Sparrow, Walter Shaw. Women Painters of the World, from the Time of Caterina Vigri. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1905.

Thieme, Ulirch, and Felix Becker. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künsler: von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig: Seemann, 1907–50.