Visitation of Saint Elizabeth with John the Baptist (after drawing attributed to Hans Brosamer)

This print belongs to a suite of thirty-eight prints that Maria Katherina Prestel and her husband (and teacher) Johann Gottlieb Prestel produced from a German collection of drawings by various artists. Five years later, when Maria Katherina separated from her husband, she and her daughter Ursula moved from Frankfurt to London—at that time the print capital of Europe—to establish their own print workshop and business. The self-sufficient London life that the Prestel women created was truly exceptional, and few female printmakers, or women artists for that matter, found such independence. Still, the Prestels’ achievement is a testament to the changing artistic milieu in which the female printmaker began to thrive.