Franz Xaver Stöber
1795–1858 · Austrian engraver and etcher
Franz Xaver Stöber (Vienna, 1795-Vienna, 1858) was an Austrian engraver and etcher. He trained first with his father, also an engraver, and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where in 1815 his engravings of mythological scenes drew attention.
Drawn to new techniques, he became the first steel engraver in Austria, and in 1829 he received a patent for printing in colour on steel or copper plates. He joined the Academy in 1835 and from 1844 taught engraving there. He also held administrative posts: he was commander of the Vienna Academic Corps and director of the Vienna Artists' Pensions Institute.
His output amounts to some 2,500 prints, ranging from full-length portraits to book vignettes. His portraits include likenesses of Henriette Sontag, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Caroline Bauer. He also collected more than five hundred early tin vessels, luxury objects etched with portraits.
In 1877 a street in Margareten was named Stöbergasse in his honour.