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.

[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] It is said that she was deeply interested in alchemy and used her fortune to pursue alchemical studies.

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