Johanna Katharina Stettler, née Wyttenbach

Johanna Katharina Stettler, née Wyttenbach, had herself portrayed in the same manner as the famous Marquise de Prie, Agnes Berthelot de Pleneuf (1698-1727).¹ The original, painted by the very young Carle Van Loo, is known in the form of replicas in oil and pastel.² In contrast to the original, in which the Marquise holds a parrot, the miniaturist painted this lady with a songbird.
The lady’s coquettish look, her raised forefinger and the bird are all part of 18th century love imagery. Just as the freedom-loving bird that is not easily captured and tamed, the lady is not easily conquered. With her right hand she warns the observer – her beloved – against the difficulties with which he could be confronted when courting her. That she will finally concede and surrender to him is proved by her smile and by the fact that she had herself portrayed for him.
Carle Van Loo painted the Marquise probably only a few years before her death.³ This miniature, which is an early example of one painted on ivory, must have been created shortly after. The choice of ivory as the painting support, which was introduced into miniature painting by Rosalba Carriera, suggests that the portrait was not painted in France, where miniaturists actually used parchment up to about 1770.
Johanna Katharina Wyttenbach‏‎ (1700-1784) was the daughter of Samuel Wyttenbach and Anna Wyss. She married Johann Rudolf Stettler in 1726. Stettler was an aristocatic official from Berne‏‎, Vogt zu Saanen, Oberamtmann zu Kastelen, Kirchmeyer and Venner zu Bern. In 1732 she gave birth to triplets.
B. P.