María Eugenia de Beer was the daughter of Cornelio de Beer, a Flemish painter and printer who is known to have been painting in Madrid in 1618. There was a tight-knit Flemish community in Madrid who supported each other in work and on legal matters, and intermarried. In 1621 Cornelio married Ana de Conce, from Breda. Their daughter Maria Eugenia can thus be assumed to have been born some time after that, though there is no mention of her in any records until 1640, when her first dated work was published: the frontispiece of a religious book.
As the daughter of an artist, she probably learned her craft from her father. On 12 November 1641, María Eugenia married 25-year-old Nicolás Merstraten, also of Flemish origin, who was to serve as valet and librarian to John Joseph of Austria. During the years when records show her as working, she is known to have produced 68 engraved plates, including two large sets: the 24 that made up Notebook of Birds for Prince Balthasar Charles and the 30 included in Exercicios de la gineta al Principe nuestro señor D. Baltasar Carlos ['Equestrian Exercises for our Lord Prince Balthasar Charles']by Gregorio de Tapia y Salcedo (1643). Apart from these sets her known output numbers just 14 works. Most of them were produced between 1640 and the birth of her son Juan in 1645. In the context of the patriarchal society of that time, it seems likely that as a mother and a wife whose husband was away in Flanders, María Eugenia was forced to give up her work as an engraver to care for her children and manage her household.
María Eugenia de Beer was the daughter of Cornelio de Beer, a Flemish painter and printer who is known to have been painting in Madrid in 1618. There was a tight-knit Flemish community in Madrid who supported each other in work and on legal matters, and intermarried. In 1621 Cornelio married Ana de Conce, from Breda. Their daughter Maria Eugenia can thus be assumed to have been born some time after that, though there is no mention of her in any records until 1640, when her first dated work was published: the frontispiece of a religious book.
As the daughter of an artist, she probably learned her craft from her father. On 12 November 1641, María Eugenia married 25-year-old Nicolás Merstraten, also of Flemish origin, who was to serve as valet and librarian to John Joseph of Austria. During the years when records show her as working, she is known to have produced 68 engraved plates, including two large sets: the 24 that made up Notebook of Birds for Prince Balthasar Charles and the 30 included in Exercicios de la gineta al Principe nuestro señor D. Baltasar Carlos ['Equestrian Exercises for our Lord Prince Balthasar Charles'] by Gregorio de Tapia y Salcedo (1643). Apart from these sets her known output numbers just 14 works. Most of them were produced between 1640 and the birth of her son Juan in 1645. In the context of the patriarchal society of that time, it seems likely that as a mother and a wife whose husband was away in Flanders, María Eugenia was forced to give up her work as an engraver to care for her children and manage her household.