Catharina Elisabeth Heinecken

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]