Clara Forster

Clara von Greyerz was a German papercutting artist. She was born in Mainz, the daughter of world traveller Georg Forster and his wife Therese. Her father became a revolutionary in the Republic of Mainz from 1792 until his death in 1794, while her mother lived in the Neuchâtel area with her lover and eventual husband Ludwig Ferdinand Huber. The family moved to Tübingen, Stuttgart and Ulm, where her stepfather died in December 1804, when she was already engaged to the forester Gottlieb von Greyerz. They married in 1805, living in Stoffenried, Günzburg, Augsburg and Bayreuth, and had ten children between 1806 and 1832. In Augsburg, von Greyerz became acquainted with Hortense de Beauharnais, and her children played with Hortense's son, the future Napoleon III of France. Von Greyerz was known for her papercuts, some of which she swapped with fellow artist Luise Duttenhofer. In 1836, she visited Hortense at Arenenberg and published a report of her experiences there.