Catharina Helena Stöber or Stöberin

Catharina Helena Stöber or Stöberin Augsburg, ca.1775 (Schuster 374). Etching with engraved text on laid paper; 230 x 166 mm (9 c x 6 ½ inches). A fine impression.

This is a souvenir portrait of Catharina Helena Stöber, a little person who was only two foot four inches (ca. 70 cm)in height. She is shown posing jauntily on a tabletop wearing a dress with a low neckline, and an open overskirt with lace and ribbons, and a decorative hat.

Catharina Helena Stöber was exhibited in fairs all over Germany. She toured from her teens well into middle age with her father Johann who managed the exhibition. Her exhibition is said to have been very popular and to have made a great deal of money. (Katritzky p.119 quoting Rudin, Lebenselixier, 72, 77,137.164). Stöber was known for her perfect proportions and for her elegant dress (as pictured here).There are at least three other images of her held at the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbütel, one of them by Nilson (a variation of our picturing the subject without her hat), all of them extremely rare.

The Artist Johann Esaias Nilson was an important portrait artist, miniaturist and engraver and editor from Augsburg. He trained under Johann Thomas Kraus (1696-1775) in the fundamentals of architecture and in perspective.

Ref: Katritzky, M. A. Women, medicine and theatre, 1500-1750: literary mountebanks and performing quacks. 2007

Provenance. Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein, Maihingen and Harburg (not stamped; cf. Lugt 2715a); C.G.Boerner, Ltd.