Helmut H. Rumbler: Catalogue 52 | 2018 | (EN)

Catalogue 52

2018

c u t, e n g r a v e d, s c r a p e d, e t c h e d, a n d l i t h o g r a p h e d

Catalogue 52 2018

KU NST H A N DLU NG

H E L M U T H . RU M B L E R OW N E R : PET R A RU M BL E R

6 0 31 3 F R A N K F U R T A M M A I N · G O E T H E S T R A S S E 2 T E L E F O N + 4 9 (0 ) 6 9 - 2 9 11 4 2 · FA X + 4 9 (0 ) 6 9 - 2 8 9 9 7 5 d r w e i s @ b e h a m 3 5 . d e · w w w . h e l m u t r u m b l e r. c o m

HEINRICH ALDEGREVER

1502 Paderborn – Soest 1555/1561

1 Hercules and Antaeus. 1529 Engraving. 11.6 x 7.3 cm Bartsch and Hollstein 96; New Hollstein 96/I (of II) Watermark: Gothic P Provenance: C ount Moriz von Fries (cf. Lugt and Lugt suppl. 2903) with the signature of the conservator of his collection F. Rechberger, 1806 (Lugt 2133) Duplicate deaccessioned from the Albertina (Lugt suppl. 5e and 5h) Private collection, South Germany

Superb early impression displaying outstanding print quality. Brilliant deep black, splendidly rich in contrasts. Prior to the later reworking of the face of Hercules.

Cut down to the platemark, to some extent unevenly. Impeccable, in pristine­ freshness.

A marvelous single sheet from Aldegrever’s early career, in which he stages the struggle between Hercules and the giant Antaeus with immense force and vehemence. The intertwined bodies of the two figures seem almost to burst the modest format chosen by the artist. Aware of the fact that Antaeus, as the son of Gaia, drew his invincible strength from his contact with Mother Earth, the classical hero suddenly lifts his antagonist skyward in order to crush the now helpless opponent in his mighty grip.

Aldegrever was one of the first artists north of the Alps to devote his attention to this subject, which had been treated a number of times in the Italy of the Renaissance in paintings and prints, but also the medium of the statuette. His interpretation and conceptualization of the scene – which asserts its uncompromising independence from figures such as Pollaiuolo, Raphael, and Mantegna – emphasizes the sculptural, space-filling qualities of the figuration. The brilliant contrasts of the present impression allows this aspect to come to the fore in a particularly striking fashion.

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HEINRICH ALDEGREVER

1502 Paderborn – Soest 1555/1561

2 Dagger Sheath with Nude Man. 1533

Dagger Sheath with Nude Woman. 1533 Two engravings, each ca. 16.1 x 2.1 – 3.3cm Bartsch and Hollstein 213 and 214; New Hollstein 213/I (of II) and 214 Provenance: Yorck von Wartenburg (Lugt 2669) [B. 213] C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, auction CLXXVI, 1932, no. 152 [B. 213] F. Trau (Lugt 2403 b) [B. 214] H. Gilhofer & H. Ranschburg, Lucerne, auction XVII, 1934 [B. 214] Dr. Franz Becker, Unna [B. 213 and 214] S. List, Frankfurt, auction 58, 1967, no. 87 C. G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, Neue Lagerliste 55, 1970, no. 84 Private collection, South Germany

Quite excellent impressions of these rare and sought-after pendants.

In each case with fine margins around the inky platemark. Impeccable condition.

Aldegrever’s perhaps most striking pair of dagger sheath designs, featuring a pair of nude figures, fully detached from one another in iconographic terms, which so to speak communicate with one another across the boundary of the respective sheet. Each gazes at his or her counterpart in an enthralling way, the two bodies turned toward one another in an elegant contrapposto. The mutual attraction between them is palpable – even the wind propels each figure’s hair toward its partner. It is difficult to anticipate which of the two will take the decisive step toward the other. Will he succumb first to her confidently displayed charms, or will she relinquish her composure in order to respond to his resolute gesture?

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PIETRO ANICHINI

Active in Florence in the mid-17th century

3 The Holy Family with St. John as a Boy in a Landscape.

1644

Etching and engraving. 17.2 x 23.3 cm Heinecken pag. 267; Ottley 4; not in Nagler or Le Blanc

Excellent impression of this rare composition.

With fine margins around the platemark. In impeccable condition.

Little is known about the life and creative oeuvre of this artist, who was active in Florence, and whose known print oeuvre, according to Ottley, encompasses only five sheets. According to Pietro Zani, he must have been born in Florence around 1610, yet in 1655, in the correspondence concerning the frontispiece he agreed to etch for C. Manolessi’s edition of the Opere of Galieo Galilei, he was still known as Giovine or Giovinetto, in 1655, which led J. Rutgers (Print Quarterly XXIX, no. 1, p. 7) to surmise that he could hardly have been older than 25 years at that time.

If this is correct, then he must have been around 14 years old when he etched the present composition, which is dated to 1644, and in which he calls attention adroitly toward the figures in the foreground and middle ground by reworking them intensively with the burin. As a consequence, the figure of Joseph on the left, which occupies the foremost plane of the image, achieves a heightened presence even in relation to the figural group in the middle ground, where the burin was used quite deliberately to accentuate the figures with less intensity. In the landscape itself, in contrast, the precise traces of the burin are barely visible. Here, the delicate lines, only weakly etched in places, skillfully suggest spatial depth.

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ANON YMOUS 18 TH -CENTURY GERMAN ARTIST

4 Landscape with Seated Woman and Fisherman. Circa 1760 Drypoint. 24.1 x 32.0 cm Exhib. cat. In Rembrandts Manier, Bremen 1987, no. 65; T. Winterberg, “Der Landschaftsradierer Franz Edmund Weirotter (1733 – 1771),” dissertation, Heidelberg 1997, A 11; exhib. cat. Rembrandt and his Influence on Eighteenth-century German and Austrian Printmakers, Amsterdam 1998, no. 10 Provenance: The Princes of Liechtenstein

Superb impression of this Rembrandtesque composition, executed entirely in drypoint. Far superior in its rich burr effects to the specimen in Bremen.

With fine margins around the platemark. Along the margins, mounted in places on the original collection support of the Princes of Liechtenstein.

In the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein, this unsigned sheet was classified as a work by F. E. Weirotter – as reported by Winterberg for various other collections as well. He however rejects an attribution to this artist.

The sketchy immediacy of the etching style is directly dependent upon Rembrandt’s drypoint technique. Produced through an interplay with the pronounced plate tone on a plate that was deliberately left imperfectly smoothed, and which displays rudimentary grinding marks which effectively structures the open sky above the f lat landscape, is an uncommonly dense atmospheric effect.

One of the most striking creations of the 18th century in the spirit of Rembrandt.

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ANON YMOUS 16 TH CENTURY DUTCH ARTIST

5 Putti in a Niche. Circa 1540/50 After Michelangelo

Engraving. 18.0 x 11.0 cm Heinecken vol. 1, p. 427, no. 20; Alexandre Zanetti, Le Premier Siècle de la Calcographie ou Catalogue raisonné des Estampes du cabinet de Feu M. Le Conte Léopold Cicognara, École d’Italie, p. 550, no. 1472; Bernardine Barnes, Michelangelo in Print, Farnham 2012, no. 34 Watermark: jug with four-lobed f lower (similar to Briquet 12632 dated Troyes 1542; Utrecht 1545) Provenance: The Princes of Liechtenstein

An early ref lection in a print medium of Michelangelo’s famous ceiling frescoes for the Sistine Chapel.

Heinecken still listed the composition under the category “Bildhauer=Arbeith” (sculptural work) as Zwey Kinder, welche ein Gesims tragen (Two children supporting a cornice). They refer however directly to a painted model, the two putti on the left above the Prophet Daniel on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Intended

by Michelangelo to resemble sculptural elements within his splendid illusionistic grisaille architecture, the isolated pair of putti is presented logically by this anony­mous engraver as a sculptural group that stands in a wall niche.

According to Barnes, such a focus on an isolated motif from the Sistine ceiling is characteristic of early interpretations of Michelangelo’s painted masterwork in print media. Completed in 1512, the ceiling fresco of the Sistine Chapel encountered a broader resonance in print media however only after the unveiling of the same artist’s Last Judgment in 1541. Alongside such well-known Italian engravers as Giulio Bonasone, Enea Vico, and Nicolas Beatrizet, print artists north of the Alps took up Michelangelo’s fascinating pictorial creations quite early on as well.

Heinecken still regarded the present composition as being by an old master, engraved in the manner of Bonasone. That this engraver worked however not in Italy but instead in the Netherlands is indicated by the paper employed for the present impression, which displays the jug watermark. Through the mediation of drawings by artists such as M. van Heemskerck, engravers such as Dirck Volkertz.

Coornhert produced entire series there (New Hollstein 553 – 572). Cornelis Bos engraved Michelangelo’s Bacchus statute from the Belvedere Garden after a drawing by Heemskerck (Schéle 49a), and was otherwise preoccupied with a variety of works by Michelangelo. It seems likely that the Putti in a Niche emerged from this artistic circle as well.

Excellent impression.

With extremely fine margins around the platemark. With the exception of a conspicuous short tear on the right edge, in pristine condition. Mounted on the collection support of the Princes of Liechtenstein.

Extremely rare.

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ROBERT VAN AUDENAERDE

1663 Ghent 1743

6 Four Scenes from the Old Testament. Circa 1685 – 87 After Domenico Zampieri, called Domenichino

Judith with the Head of Holofernes David Dances before the Ark of the Covenant Esther before Ahasuerus Salomon and Bathseba on the Throne

Series of 4 sheets. Etching. 23.2 – 25.2 x 19.8 – 20.8 cm Le Blanc 5 – 8 Watermark: lily inscribed in a circle (partial)

Audenaerde’s rarely complete series after Domenichino’s famous pendentive ­tondi in the Bandini Chapel in San Silvestro al Quirinale in Rome (Spear cat.

101.I – IV).

Uniformly in quite excellent print quality. David Dances before the Ark of the Cov­ enant still bears Collignon’s address, others already display the address of van Westerhout, the new publisher.

In each case with 2 – 3 mm margins around the platemark. Only Esther before Ahasuerus has been cut down to the composition with slight unevenness along the right-hand side edge. Otherwise in a beautiful state of preservation.

The series was produced early on during the artist’s stay of many years in Rome, where he collaborated with F. Collignon, one of the leading figures in the Roman printing trade of his time. The latter however died shortly after completing these plates, which then came into the possession of A. Westerhout in 1687. A native of Antwerp, Westerhout had settled in Rome in 1681, where he opened a shop in the vicinity of San Ignatio, which would develop into one of the most important Roman print publishing enterprises of the period.

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HANS BALDUNG GRIEN

7 St. Sebastian Bound to a Tree.

1484/85 Gmünd (Swabia) – Strasbourg 1545

1514

Woodcut. 31.2 x 23.4 cm Bartsch 37; Hollstein 128; Exhib.cat. Hans Baldung Grien, Karlsruhe 1959, no. 62; Geisberg/Strauss 113; Mende 38 Watermark: Gothic ‘p’ below a small shield with an imperial orb (similar to Meder wm. 324) Provenance: C. G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, Neue Lagerliste 6, 1952, no. 9

Indisputably one of the artist’s most important prints, whose grandiose figure of the martyred Sebastian H. Curjel referred to as a German Laocoön.

A very fine and unusually striking impression.

Like all of the other known exemplars, showing a vertical crack through the printing block, carefully retouched here. Impressions taken prior to cracking, as described by Hollstein, have not been traced to date, as referenced already by E. Brochhagen and J. Lauts.

According to them, completely flawless exemplars of particular compositions… are apparently very rare… The woodblocks produced since 1510 already show cracks, gaps and other breaches even in relatively early impressions… The comparatively good printing quality of many exemplars with wormholes suggests that a number of Baldung’s woodblocks were reprinted after a longer time of not being printed.

Printed on paper with the watermark ‘Gothic p below a shield with an imperial orb’ (similar to Meder wm. 324), like all the other fine impressions known, i.e. the ones in the British Museum and the Augustiner Museum in Freiburg.

With fully visible borderline. In excellent condition.

Extremely rare.

It is a striking example of Baldung’s style produced during his period in Freiburg, when the production of Mathis Grünewald’s altarpiece in nearby Isenheim, which was completed c.

1515, made a significant impression on him. His idiosyncratic use of turbulent, tube-like clouds to convey a form of subjective emotion is also seen in the “Virgin an Child with a Donor” (H. 64), produced at the same period, and has the effect of merging the foreground with the background. These woodcuts are designed with a dense accumulation of lines which must have been particularly difficult to cut and print successfully, but the dramatic impact of Baldung’s image makes up for the lack of clarity of most the surviving impressions.

(G. Bartrum)

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HANS BALDUNG GRIEN

1484/85 Gmünd (Swabia) – Strasbourg 1545

8 The Drunken Bacchus. Circa 1510/20 Woodcut. 23.3 x 15.1 cm Bartsch 45; Hollstein 233/II; exhib. cat. Hans Baldung Grien, Karlsruhe 1959, no. 74; Geisberg/Strauss 117; Mende 75 Provenance: private collection, Southwest Germany

Strikingly deep black impression.

As often, with gaps in the borderline and wormholes, which have been carefully retouched with pen and ink. According to Geisberg, no early impression seems to have survived.

With the framing line visible above and below, but cut close at the sides. With a small area of reinforcement to the paper at the extreme right hand edge, otherwise in an excellent state of preservation.

Rare.

Baldung had already turned his attention toward the subject of the Drunken ­B acchus in 1517 in a painstakingly executed drawing on brown paper with white highlights, today found in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Like the drawing, the present woodcut – produced just a few years later – offers an idiosyncratic and highly personal interpretation of this antique motif.

As a possible source of inspiration for Baldung, H. Bevers has referred to an engraving from the School of Mantegna which depicts Bacchus abandoning himself to drink, served by putti (B. XIII, 327, 17). Baldung’s Bacchus has already left simple indulgence far behind, and succumbs now to inebriation. The putti now take the initiative, and perform a disrespectful and mischievous trick on the drunken and insensate figure. The first holds a cylindrical beaker, another pulls at his loincloth, while a third, who wears a helmet on his head and holds a victory torch in his hand, relieves himself directly on Bacchus’s head from his elevated standpoint on the wine cask.

Typical of Baldung’s depictions of Bacchus is the moralizing content, which admonishes the viewer against dissoluteness of drinking and the mental dullness associated with while at the same time delighting in the utter comicality of unrestrained human behavior. (exhib. cat. Hans Baldung Grien in Freiburg, Freiburg 2001, p. 200)

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FR ANCESCO BARTOLOZZI

1728 Florence – Lisbon 1815

9 Virtue Crowning Nobility. Circa 1762 After F. Fontebasso

Etching and engraving. 42.3 x 33.5 cm Not listed in Tuer; de Vesme-Calabi 739 Provenance: The Princes of Liechtenstein

An early impression prior to ‘N.o 33 – 6’ that remained unknown to Vesme-Calabi.

With very narrow margins around the platemark. Along the margins, mounted in places on the original collection support of The Princes of Liechtenstein. Impeccable.

Through the juxtaposition of coronation and battle scenes, the allegory of virtue published by J. Wagner in Venice thematizes the glories and beneficial triumph of wisdom over the destructive powers of envy, ignorance, and falsehood. In a dramatically depicted battle on the right-hand side of the image, Athena – fully armed and carrying a Gorgon shield – puts their snake-haired personification to f light, while winged Fama above announces the splendor of the Golden Age that is ushered in as a result.

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FR ANCESCO BARTOLOZZI

10 Mary Queen of Scots.

1728 Florence – Lisbon 1815

1778/79

After F. Zuccaro

Etching. 40.6 x 28.4 cm De Vesme – Calabi 1208/I (of V) Watermark: D TAMIZIER/AUVERGNE/FIN1773 (Heawood 3429) Provenance: unidentified collection (Lugt 53)

Extremely rare first state proof of the only purely etched plate. Prior to the completion of the composition with the burin, and in particular before the addition of text.

With a margin measuring 4 – 20 mm around the border. Slight crease mark above the left lower corner and insignificant signs of wear, otherwise in an excellent state of preservation.

An impression from the final 5th state is included gratis as an extra.

This sheet, referred to by Charles Sumner as the undoubtedly prettiest piece among Bartolozzi’s works of portraiture was based on a painting, then attributed to F. Zuccaro, and owned by the Drapers’ Company in London, where it is still found today.

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ADAM VON BARTSCH

1757 Vienna 1821

11 The Son of the Captain of Capernaum Reawakens to Life. 1786 After C. Maratti

Etching, aquatint, and mattoir, printed from two plates. 26.5 x 23.2 cm Bartsch 324/II; Le Blanc 16; exhib. cat. Aquatinta oder “Die Kunst mit dem Pinsel zu zeichnen,” Coburg 2007, p. 272, ill. 196; Rieger 325/IV Provenance: The Princes of Liechtenstein

One of the early print translations of an important drawing from the Viennese collection of Prince Charles de Ligne (1759 – 1792), among the most passionate print collectors of his time.

Printed in an effective sepia that is particularly appropriate to the original, a pen and wash drawing with white highlights on brownish paper.

This sheet, which dates from 1786… illustrates the sovereign application of various printing techniques in order to produce a variety of chiaroscuro effects… the laterally correct print captures the dramatic, compact scene of awakening primarily using etched lines, joined by resin grain aquatint according to Le Prince’s method. These techniques are accompanied by impasto lines effected through the use of the mattoir. (C. Wiebel) The drawing, now in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. no. 1062), is no longer regarded (as proposed by Friedrich Bartsch) as depicting the resurrection of the widow’s son at Naim, but is instead interpreted as illustrating the reviving of the son of the captain of Capernaum.

With fine paper margins around the platemark. Mounted at the corners to the original collection support of the Princes of Liechtenstein. In an excellent state of preservation.

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11

CORNELIS BEGA

1631/32 Haarlem 1664

12 The Three Drinkers. Circa 1660 Etching. 11.5 x 11.4 cm Dutuit 29/I (of II); Hollstein 29/I – II(of III)

Exquisite, sooty, deep-black early impression, according to Hollstein, still with clearly visible fine traces of a high cap on the man seated on the right. The corners of the plate, with the exception of the upper right, still sharp: according to Hollstein, the edges of the plate not yet cleaned.

With uncommonly broad paper margins (sheet dimensions: 27.8 x 20.2 cm). In immaculately fresh condition.

Rarely so beautiful.

Typically for etchings produced by Begas toward 1660, the three comrades are grouped closely together. An undefined light source illuminates them within the darkness of this humble taproom, whose contours remain uncertain. The three have come together to swig beer and chat. The fellow seated on the cask has set his tankard down on the f loor beside him, and seems to be relating something of interest to his companions. The gestures of the standing man express astonishment, while the man seated on the low bench listens, enthralled, but cannot be diverted from his mood of festive serenity.

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BARTHEL BEHAM

13 Adam and Eve.

1502 Nuremberg – Italy 1540

Circa 1526 – 29

Engraving. 7.7 x 5.2 cm Bartsch 1; Pauli and Hollstein 1/II Provenance: Richard Jung (Lugt 3791) Private collection, Southwest Germany

Fine impression of this extremely rare composition. Beautifully clear and transparent. Minimally cut close to the top and on the sides, otherwise in an untouched, fresh state of preservation.

Hollstein could identify the first state, before the reworking of the shadows, only in four impressions in public collections in Düsseldorf, Paris, Vienna and Zurich.

In his depiction of the Fall, Beham illustrates the consequences of this event – which is to say the punishment inf licted on the first human couple in the form of mortality – in a truly striking fashion. In his iconography, the trunk of the Tree of Knowledge is represented as a skeleton.

The unusual and macabre transformation of the Tree of Life into a visual Tree of Death is the most striking element of Barthel’s composition. The pessimistic view of mankind, inherent in all representations of the Fall, is here taken to a bizarre extreme. Representations of Death in association with human sexuality are so common in prints of this period that it is not surprising to see this traditional Old Testament theme, in which a serpent is associated with the sin of lust, interpreted in such fashion for collectors of small engravings.

(G. Bartrum)

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HANS SEBALD BEHAM

1500 Nuremberg – Frankfurt am Main 1550

14 Patience. 1540 Engraving. 10.3 x 7.0 cm Bartsch 138 Pauli and Hollstein 141/IV (of VI) Provenance: P & D Colnaghi, London, stock number c. 23824 Private collection, South Germany

Superb impression prior to later reworking and additional hatchings.

Of the utmost clarity and brilliance.

With 2 mm margins around the platemark. Impeccably fresh.

During 1539 – 41, Beham made several independent engravings of allegorical figures.

They are always set in the near foreground with a few attributes surrounding them, and in this respect follow the format of contemporary bronze plaquettes of similar subjects and equally small dimensions produced by Peter Flötner. (G. Bartrum)

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HANS SEBALD BEHAM

15 The Little Buffoon.

1500 Nuremberg – Frankfurt/M. 1550

1542

Engraving. 4.5 x 8.0 cm Bartsch 230; Pauli and Hollstein 234/II Provenance: Dr. W. Ackermann (Lugt 791) Private collection, Southwest Germany

Splendid, remarkably contrasty impression of this charming composition.

Cut on the platemark and with tiny margins beyond. Impeccable.

In this highly inventive pictorial invention, Beham illustrates the way in which grammar becomes a proverbial pitfall for those who fail to properly apply themselves to their studies. The little boy, who is characterized by his foolscap as a buffoon, has become hopelessly entangled in the interlacing banderole. The lettering bluntly explains his lamentable situation: ON DIR HAB ICH GERISSEN, DAS ICH MICH HAB BESCHISSEN (On you I have written that I have shat myself).

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SCHELTE ADAMSZ. BOLSWERT

1586 Frisia – Antwerp 1659

16 Christ Triumphant Over Death. Circa 1630 Engraving. 29.1 x 19.9 cm Listed in neither Wurzbach nor Hollstein.

Watermark: double C beneath crown

A rare composition – one unknown even to Hollstein – in a quite splendid impression of the most marvelous brilliance and clarity.

With ca. 2 cm picture margins around the tonally distinct platemark. Faint horizontal fold visible only on the verso, otherwise impeccable.

Published by Bolswert himself, this sheet betrays nothing concerning the author of this striking pictorial invention, which depicts the Risen Christ as the conqueror of death and sin, surrounded by angels who function as commentators on this truth of the faith.

The sufferings of the Passion lie behind him, and his transfigured body displays only the five stigmata through which victory has been achieved. His blood was shed, as we read in the canon of the mass, to atone for our sins. An allusion to this, with explicit reference to the Eucharist, is the inverted chalice held by the angel on the right, while the angel on the left uses the staff of the Resurrection to deal a death blow to the satanic dragon. With the Resurrection, the power of Death has been broken, its chains rent apart. The resurrected Christ has earned the victory laurel.

Accordingly, the verse along the lower margin cites the First Epistle to the Corinthians: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

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PIETER BOUT

1658 Brussels 1719

17 The Sleigh on the Ice. Circa 1680 Etching. 19.6 x 27.3cm Bartsch and Dutuit 3; Hollstein 3/I (of II) Watermark: Amsterdam coat of arms Provenance: B . Keller (Lugt 384) H. G. Gutekunst, Stuttgart, auction VI, 1871, no. 638 C. G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, Neue Lagerliste 67, 1976, no. 76

Superb early impression. Prior to the cleaning of the plate: with the rich vertical wipe marks that are so crucial to the work’s characteristic mood, enhanced here in the most felicitous way by an especially pronounced plate tone. The plate margins still show marked etching spots.

With ca. 1 cm margins around the platemark. Impeccable.

Flawless, of the greatest possible rarity.

One of only five original etchings by Bout, all without exception rare, in which he has captured the rural life of his times in a strikingly atmospheric way with a rapid, confident etching needle. With tremendous verve, he has sketched out the wintertime scene, set on a frozen body of water under a cloudy sky not far from a village settlement. The brisk movements of the gliding ice-skaters have been captured with the same assurance and control as the strollers who pause, absorbed in conversation, or the horse-drawn sleigh for which the print was named. All have come out onto the ice together, perhaps to enjoy a pleasant Sunday afternoon. The very quintessence of tranquil Dutch country life.

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RODOLPHE BRESDIN

1822 Montrelais – Sèvres 1885

18 The Flight into Egypt – The Holy Family on the Banks of a Mountain Stream. 1855 Lithograph. 22.5 x 17.4 cm Van Gelder 85/II-prior to 1 (of II – 3); Préaud, exhib. cat. Rodolphe Bresdin…, Paris 2000, no. 45/ prior to II (of IV)

Exquisite, extremely rare proof impression, not recorded to date, of one of the most famous master prints by this artist – which, according to van Gelder, made such excessive demands on both the printing stone and the printer that he was obliged to rework the extraordinarily dense composition for the production of the actual edition itself.

The first so to speak testing proof produced from the pierre de report, onto which Bresdin transferred the composition using an impression from the mother stone which had been cut down slightly on each side. Here, the composition was to have been cautiously reworked using a brush and strongly diluted acid in order to partially reduce the absorption capacities of the stone for the printing ink.

Still prior to all of these revisions, devoted to lightening various passages, for example the banks of the stream at Joseph’s feet and the mountain chain in the background. The dramatically clouded sky still – as originally intended – dark and accentuated with marvelously intensity, so that it almost coalesces with the finely ramified branches of the trees to form a mysterious, almost indecipherable tangle. The foreground still submerged into a velvety and almost opaque black, within which the searching eye is able to discern concrete details here and there, for example the two small monkey’s heads on the lower right. Still showing the ‘white patch’ on the upper right, later concealed by Bresdin.

Printed on strong, white wove paper whose freshness effectively enhances contrasts. An impression of fabulous beauty and virtually unsurpassable brilliance.

Romantique comme Albrecht Dürer et Rembrandt, Rodolphe Bresdin est exact et minutieux comme Van Eyck: Il a de Rembrandt le sentiment mystique et les ébouissements prodigeux de lumière; D’Albert Durer, la rêverie profonde; de Van Eyck, la science passionée du détail…

(A. Dusolier)

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RODOLPHE BRESDIN

1822 Montrelais – Sèvres 1885

19 Abd-el-Kader secourant un chrétien. – Le Bon Samaritain. 1861 Lithograph. 56.7 x 44.5 cm Van Gelder 100- deuxième et troisième tirage; exhib. cat. Rodolphe Bresdin, Paris 2000, no. 29 1er état B

The chef d’oeuvre of French printmaking in the era of Romanticism.

A remarkably fine impression printed on double chine collé.

With the early printing defects of the lithographic stone that emerged during production of the 2nd and 3rd editions of September 10 and 20, 1867, respect­ ively, i.e. with the ‘black leg’ of the monkey and the ‘white bird’ on the tuft of grass in the left foreground.

Before transfer onto a ‘pierre de report.’

With 2 – 5 cm margins. Brilliant.

Bresdin exhibited this fantastical, large-format composition for the first time at the Paris Salon of 1861 in conjunction with a group of six preparatory drawings.

It was listed there under the title Abd-el-Kader secourant un chrétien, not the more familiar title Le Bon Samaritan.

The original title refers to one of the most legendary figures of mid-19th-century French history. In 1860/61 in particular, the name ‘Abd-el-Kader’ was on everyone’s lips in France. The famed Emir of Algeria fought the French army for fifteen years at the head of his country’s forces before surrendering finally in 1847.

When the Emperor Louis Napoleon granted him amnesty in 1852, Abd-el-Kader settled in Damascus, wherein July 1860, he protected several thousand Christians and Jews from the periodic warfare which had broken out again between Syrian Muslims and Christians. The news of his dramatic intervention quickly reached France, where it was widely reported.

Despite the title’s reference to contemporary history, Bresdin has elevated his composition to an almost timeless level by concentrating on the two protagonists, alluding deliberately to the biblical “Parable of the Good Samaritan” as a prototype. The exotic wilderness, whose luxuriant vegetation nearly engulfs the scene of rescue, may evoke associations with oriental and exotic climes. But the way in which monkeys, screech owls, and birds conceal themselves in this madly proliferating primeval forest, whose palms, oaks, and ashes intermingle in indifference to season and climate, peering out of the dense mesh of gnarled branches and knotty roots, this fantastical scenery assumes qualities that are as menacing as they are paradisal.

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FÉLIX-HILAIRE BUHOT

1847 Valonges – Paris 1898

20 Les Voisins de Campagne – Souvenir de Basse Normandie.

Circa 1878/79

Etching and aquatint. 13.4 x 18.1 cm Bourcard 148/IV (of V) ; Bourcard-Goodfriend 148/IV (of VI) Watermark: HES Provenance: Helmut H. Rumbler, Catalog 9, 1978, no. 23

Quite possibly the artist’s most charming composition.

Highly interesting impression, bearing numerous pencil annotations by the artist which are intended for the printer: “Les marges dans ce ton,” “Encre un peu plus chaude” “Le Premier plan brillant,” … “un peu maigre”…

The fourth state after the reduction in size of the plate. With the title. The croquis at the left margin has been reworked, but before the additional croquis at the right margin and the final canceling of the plate.

With the artist’s red monogram stamp on the right.

Some traces of use by the workshop in the wide margins, whose edges were formerly folded back, but have now been carefully smoothed down. The crease partly cracked and slightly torn in places. Otherwise in perfect condition.

This sought-after composition is an amusing ‘souvenir’ from the Basse Normandie showing two neighbours returning home on a rainy November evening: Ce ne sont plus des voisins de campagne qu’on aperçoit, c’est la vie normande d’hiver avec ses veillées qu’il a lui-même décrites autrefois dans sa pose châtiée et charmante.

(A. Fontaine) Rare.

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20

WILLEM PIETERSZ. BUYTEWECH

1591/92 Rotterdam 1624

21 St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata. Circa 1613/14 After P. P. Rubens

Etching. 13.9 x 10.2 cm Schneevoogt, p. 97, no. 22; Dutuit VI, p. 114, no. 9/II; Hind 10/II; van Gelder 6/II; Hollstein 11/II; Haverkamp Begemann vG6/II (of III); Hollstein (after Peter Paul Rubens) 17/II (of III) Watermark: seven-pointed foolscap Provenance: F ürstlich Waldburg Wolfeggsches Kupferstichkabinett (Lugt 2542) H. G. Gutekunst, Stuttgart, auction 55, 1901, no. 1444

Excellent impression of an etching formerly believed to be from Ruben’s own hand. Prior to the later deletion of the name ‘P. Paul Rubens.’

The earliest attainable state, since it has proven impossible to identify a single copy of the first state described by Haverkamp-Begemann in reliance upon Dut­ uit, prior to the name Rubens and with the identifier “D.M.R.” Haverkamp-Begemann was able to trace altogether nine copies of this state in public collections.

Of great rarity.

With 2 mm paper margins around the tonally distinct platemark.

Van Gelder’s attribution of this etching to Buytewech is generally accepted today.

Executed around 1613/14, it presumably ref lects an original figure study by Rubens that has not survived, and which the artist later took up as the basis for a side altar painting commissioned for the Franciscan Monastery in Ghent de­picting the Stigmatization of St. Francis ( Jaffé p. 349, no. 1206). That work is found today in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent.

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21

JACQUES CALLOT

1592 Nancy 1635

22 The Great Hunt. Circa 1620 Etching. 19,7 x 46,6 cm Lieure 353/I (of IV)

One of the sought-after principal sheets by this artist – one of his most spirited etchings (H. D. Russel).

Here we have the extremely rare 1st state in a splendid impression of the greatest brilliance. With sooty, deep black lines in the foreground, yet with painstakingly nuanced halftones in the distinct background, so that the desired effects of illumination are enhanced to an extraordinary degree.

With all of the characteristics mentioned by Lieure only for the early impressions: Les détails des lointains se voient très nettement, en particulier la chasse au sanglier du fond à droite et le pont, le croix et la petite ville du fond à gauche… le faucon volant au-dessus d’un oiseau…

With fine margins around the plate mark; on the right, minimal irregularities around the framing line. Now closed marginal blemishes are not visible to the eye, and can be disregarded in view of the beauty of this impression.

The Great Hunt is the largest and perhaps most beautiful landscape by this artist.

It was presumably produced when the artist was still in Florence. Lieure suggested that Callot’s hunt takes place around the town Signa, where the Medici had one of their villas, and it is likely that a specific setting was intended. At the same time, depictions of hunts in drawings, prints, and paintings were common enough, and Callot certainly was aware of some of them. His own contribution to the theme is the projection of the kinetic and frenetic activity intrinsic to it. At the right the swinging trees become nearly anthropomorphic participants in the hunt, reinforcing the movement of charging horses, riders, and dogs into the distant middleground where the stag is being surrounded. At the left, huntsmen move toward the prey with a counterpointed cadence… the scene is carefully ordered compositionally and suffused with a sense of atmosphere. (H. D. Russel)

50

22

ANTONIO CANAL gen. CANALETTO

1697 Venice 1768

23 Landscape with Ruined Monuments. Circa 1739 Etching. 14.4 x 21.4 cm De Vesme 28; Bromberg 31 Provenance: P. Davidsohn (Lugt 654) C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, sale CXXIX, no. 971

Described as an excellent impression in the sales catalogue of the Davidsohn Collection. With c. 1 cm margins around the platemark.

A beautiful ruin capriccio from the series “Vedute/Altre prese da Luoghi alter ideate”, first published in 1744, by the principal master of the Venetian veduta.

Canaletto dedicated this publication, comprising his entire graphic oeuvre, to Joseph Smith, a merchant banker living in Venice, who had been the ambassador of the British Crown since 1744. As a collector of Canaletto’s works as well as his agent, Smith maintained a mutually beneficial relationship with the artist until these latter’s death.

The landscape views executed beginning in 1735 – probably at John Smith’s suggestion – are not faithful recreations of Venetian scenes, but instead freely imagined creations based on piazzas and places found in the Serenissima.

In a way that is characteristic for Canaletto, Venetian and classical Roman elements are fused together in the present composition to create an atmospherically charged image of the terraferma surrounding the city on the lagoon. Rising at the center of the composition behind a tall pilaster is a ruined triumphal arch, which serves as a framing structure for a fountain. It is oriented toward the forms of a Venetian wall-style tomb monument rather than toward antique models. Vis­ ible directly behind it, lying in shadow, is a small pyramid, and in the background, a typical Venetian house, behind which a pointed church tower rises skyward. Concerning the pyramid which sits on the left behind an embankment, Canaletto may have been thinking of the Pyramid of Cestius in Rome, which he knew from his stay in the Eternal City in 1719.

In his relatively short career as a painter-etcher, Canaletto developed a highly original graphic style that extended his artistic vision into unforeseen dimensions. Experimenting with informal approaches and new subjects, he evolved a lyrical view of Venice and the Veneto charged with tender nostalgia. The imaginary scenes waft us through a charming world freed from the restrictions of space and time. The etchings continue to seduce us with a rare essence distilled from the faded beauty of “La Serenissima” by one of her most talen­ ted native sons. (B. Wallen)

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23

GIOVANNI BENEDETTO CASTIGLIONE

24 Bacchanal before a Herm of Pan.

1609 Genoa – Mantua 1665

1645

Etching. 22.6 x 18.2 cm Bartsch 16/III; Bellini 10/III; Percy E8; T.I.B. 46 Commentary, 016. S3 Watermark: anchor in a circle (Heawood 5) Provenance: J. Barnard (Lugt 1419)

A highlight among etchings by this artist on lyrical and bucolic themes.

A very fine impression which still displays very nicely the horizontal wipe marks that are dispersed across the entire plate which – in conjunction with the delicate plate tone – reinforce the composition’s atmospheric effect in a felicitous way .

With 2 – 3 mm margins beyond the plate mark. Perfect and pristine.

Through a virtuoso alternation between densely etched and only tenuously interwoven passages, Castiglione masterfully evokes an Arcadian, pastoral mood. In the shimmering heat of a summer’s day, before a herm stele, two satyrs and a bacchante indulge in the pleasures of drinking and music-making.

Although this composition has been referred to in the literature, among others

by Bartsch, as a “Bacchanal before a Herm of Pan or Priapus,” Bellini cites de Rossi’s Index of 1677, according to which the theme is probably Terminus, the Sabine god of boundaries.

The influence of Rembrandt’s treatment of chiaroscuro values… The shadows take on a rich, dense interweaving of lines inspired by Rembrandt, and this quality remains a vital characteristic of the artist’s etching technique. (E. Percy)

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24

GIOVANNI BENEDETTO CASTIGLIONE

1609 Genoa – Mantua 1665

25 Man with a Beard and Mustache, wearing a Tassled Headdress, Facing Left. Circa 1645/50 Etching. 18.0 x 15.0 cm

Bartsch 51; Bellini 44/II; TIB 46 commentary 051 S3 A great Rembrandtesque composition in a brilliantly deep black impression of outstanding quality.

With 2 – 3 mm margins. Pristinely fresh.

This virtuosic study of on old man belongs to a series of character heads with oriental headdresses that was begun in Genoa and completed in Rome during the artist’s second stay there (1647 – 51). This would explain the adjective ‘GENOVESE,’ added by the artist to his signature, which makes sense only for an artist working away from home.

Regarding the subject as well as the etching technique, Castiglione has recourse to Dutch prototypes. His knowledge of the so-called ‘Tronjes’ of Rembrandt and Lievens is undeniable here (cf. exhib. cat. Rembrandt et les painters-graveurs italiens…, Epinal 2003/04, nos. 6 and 7). Executed during the late 1630s as model-like character studies, they arrived at Italy shortly thereafter. It is well-known that Rembrandt’s etchings were highly esteemed in Italy beginning in the second third of the seventeenth-century. His influence on Castiglione’s work is strikingly notice­ able in the 1650s in particular, prompting S. Welsh to propose a date of ­c irca 1650.

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25

GIOVANNI BENEDETTO CASTIGLIONE

1609 Genoa – Mantua 1665

26 The Genius of Castiglione. Circa 1648 Etching. 36.1 x 24.3 cm Bartsch 23; Percy E. 16; Bellini 56/III T.I.B. 46 commentary 023 S3 Watermark: lily in a circle

Castiglione’s most famous etching (T. J. Standring and M. Clayton).

The sought after composition in a very fine, delicately nuanced impression.

With 3.5 – 4 cm margins. A small, unobtrusive printer’s fold at center right, otherwise in excellent condition.

The unusual composition is an allegorical self-portrait of the artist, whose spirit and creativity are shown being crowned by Fame.

The basket with the grapes, the hen, and the rabbit symbolize fecundity and ­c reative potency. In contrast, the memorial, overgrown with grass, the artist’s instruments, carelessly dispersed on the ground, and the rumpled sheet of music epitomize the transitory nature of artistic achievement and of human activity in general.

60

JUSTE CHEVILLET

27 Portrait de J. B. S. Chardin. – Self-Portrait with Spectacles.

1729 Frankfurt an der Oder – Paris 1802

Circa 1775

After J. B. S. Chardin

Etching and engraving. 33.8 x 24.1 cm Inventaire du Fonds Français, Graveurs du XVIIIe siècle, tome IV, p. 357, no. 38/I (of II) Provenance: H. Thomas (Lugt 1278) Hotel Drouot , Paris, sale of June 21, 1950, no. 13

Brilliant proof prior to the addition of text.

With uncut margins. Perfect.

According to A. Klumpp (exhib. cat. Jean Siméon Chardin…, Karlsruhe 1999), Chardin displayed three pastels, including a self-portrait (Louvre, Paris), at the Salon of 1771. In 1775, Chevillet, a pupil of Johann Georg Wille, engraved the self-portrait. By adding a stone frame, the artist dispels the intimate dialogue between artist and viewer, elevating the work into an official sphere…

Extremely rare.

62

DIRCK VOLKERTSZ. COORNHERT

1519 Amsterdam – Gouda 1590

28 The Mocking of Noah. Circa 1550 After M. van Heemskerck

Engraving. 25.2 x 38.7 cm New Hollstein (M. van Heemskerck) 1 Provenance: D r. E. Edler von Horrak (Lugt 866) F. Quiring (Lugt 1041b)

Excellent early impression of this rare single sheet.

Homogeneous deep black and still displaying the intensive wipe marks –like the impression at the Albertina, Vienna. I. M. Veldman was able to identify only one further exemplar, now in the collection of the British Museum, London.

With fine margins beyond the plate mark.

Aside from the vestiges on the reverse of earlier hinges and a tiny backed wormhole, in a state of pristine freshness.

It remains unclear whether M. van Heemskerck produced etchings or engravings in his own hand. Undisputed, meanwhile, is his impact as a prolific designer of master sheets for printmakers. The present composition is one of an extensive group of prints he produced in a close and extremely productive collaboration with Dirck Volkertsz. Coornhert. Around 1541, after marrying, Coornhert re­­ located from Amsterdam to Haarlem, where he was able to establish himself as an engraver under the inf luence of the important Romanist artist.

The master drawing, today in the Statens Museum in Copenhagen, was executed around 1550 (Graff 33). Here, Heemskerck illustrates a central episode from the story of Noah as reported in the First Book of Moses. Meaningfully, he has relocated the scene from the tent where Moses has it taking place to the border of the vineyard Noah planted soon after disembarking from the ark. Drunk after indulging in wine, he has inadvertently exposed himself while sleeping. Upon discovering his father’s misfortune, Noah’s son Haman does not hesitate to reveal his embarrassment to his brothers. Filled with shame, they approach their father discreetly, while looking away and walking backwards, in order to cover his nakedness. Upon awakening and realizing what has transpired, Noah curses Haram and his descendants while bestowing his blessing on Sem and Japheth.

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28

JURIAN COOTW YCK

1714 Amsterdam 1798

29 Standing Ox. Circa 1750 (?)

After P. Potter

Crayon manner. 15.9 x 20.8 cm Andresen 5; Le Blanc 9; Wurzbach 15; Wurzbach (after Potter) 11 Provenance: CD (not listed in Lugt)

Among the incunabula of the crayon manner.

Brilliant impression which effectively reproduces not just the velvety blacks, but also the most delicate gray tonal values of the individual chalk marks.

Trimmed down very close to the framing line, the typical practice for imitations of drawings at that time. Labeled “Cootwyck fecit” on the reverse in pencil in the artist’s own hand (?)‚ a practice also documented for Ploos van Amstel. Attached on two sides to a support from an old collection.

Beginning in the 1740s (and working independently of J.-C. François, widely regarded as the ‘inventor’ of the crayon manner, who arrived at his innovation around the same time), Cootwyck developed a procedure that allowed him to imitate the grainy structure of the lines typical of the chalk drawing, which may also be slightly smudged in places, in a print medium. He seems to have assured himself of the effectiveness of the result through the repeated production of proof impressions, since Wurzbach has identified numerous print variants within his print oeuvre, which encompasses altogether 175 sheets.

The present impression as well is a rare proof on which Cootwyck has supplemented details within the contour lines using pencil.

Serving as a model was a chalk drawing by P. Potter which dates from the early 1650s.

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29

ALBRECHT DÜRER

1471 Nuremberg 1528

30 Five Figure Studies – The So-Called Desperate Man. Circa 1514/15 Etching on iron. 18.4 x 13.3 cm Bartsch 70; Meder 95/Ia (of IIb); Schoch-Mende-Scherbaum 79

Striking impression regarding both contrasts as well as depth effects, rarely as beautiful as here.

With abundant ink remaining in the shadows, resulting in effects of three dimensionality, as mentioned by Meder for the best impressions. Becoming detectable only by degrees – and in particular compositions, so-to-speak experimentally – is the tonal process, associated with great expenditures of time and effort, which Dürer must have developed deliberately. There can be little doubt that here, around 1515, the five loosely rendered figures of the etching B. 70 were chosen for the purpose of achieving a new level of painterly modelling, as well as a new degree of artistic heightening, achieved by leaving abundant ink on the printing plate …

According to virtually unanimous opinion, the artist’s first attempt at etching on iron.

Responsible for the initial experiments with the new technique was Daniel Hopfer, an etcher of armory and an artist, in Augsburg between 1501 and 1507.

To date, attempts to conclusively identify the various figures or to relate them to one another have been unsuccessful. The man seen in profile on the left may depict Dürer’s brother Endres (Andreas); this figure – whose Michelangelesque features are unmistakable – corresponds to a drawing that is dated 1514. The central figure too would be difficult to imagine without Michelangelo’s precedent.

The mysterious group of figures stands out in Dürer’s work. The neutral title given here was first used by Bartsch in 1808, but the print has also been entitled ‘The Dismayed Husband’ (Hüsgen, 1798, ‘The Bath’ (Heller, 1827) and ‘The Desperate Man’ (von Retberg, 1871). Panofsky interpreted the print in terms of Dürer’s continuing interest in types of melancholy to affect the human condition that so preoccupied medical men of the day with the man in the center, for example, who apparently tears his hair, signifying choleric melan­ choly, the sleeping figure representing phlegmatic melancholy and the pleasure-seeking satyr representing sanguine melancholy. (G. Bartrum)

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30

ALBRECHT DÜRER

1471 Nuremberg 1528

31 Christ on the Cross. Circa 1498 Woodcut. 39.3 x 28.0 cm Bartsch 11; Meder 120/II (of III f); Schoch-Mende-Scherbaum 161 Watermark: tower with crown (Meder Wz, 259)

The eighth sheet from the “Large Passion” series.

Powerful, deep black, uncommonly clear impression in rare uniform print quality.

With paper margins measuring up to 2.5 cm in width. With remnants of an old binding on the left. Gaps in the lower margin, visible already in the earliest impressions, carefully retouched. Otherwise utterly pristine, f lawless, and fresh.

This grandiose composition is among the principal sheets of “The Large Passion.”

Dürer began the series of 12 woodcuts in 1597, immediately after completing the “Apocalypse,” but it was completed only after an extended pause in 1510/11, when it was published as one of the three great books. The Crucufuxion scene is one of the first seven sheets produced prior to the caesura of 1500.

The richly figured pictorial field is traversed by a dynamic interplay of blacks and whites.

The atmosphere is one of writhing turmoil, emphasized by the wealth of forms and their restless interior lines. The mood seems emblematic of the furor of the elements during the crucifixion of the Son of God…(M. Haas)

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31

ALBRECHT DÜRER

32 Christ on the Mount of Olives.

1471 Nuremberg 1528

Circa 1508/09

Woodcut. 12.6 x 9.8 cm Bartsch 54; Meder 162 a (of c); Hollstein 162; Schoch-Mende-Scherbaum 223 Provenance: A. Freiherr von Lanna (Lugt 2773), Singer 3280 G. Eissler (Lugt 805 b) C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, auction 136, 1921, no. 299

Excellent early impression of a composition, referred to already by Meder as rare, which was conceived initially for the “Small Woodcut Passion,” but ultimately rejected by the artist and replaced by another version (Meder 134).

Prior to various gaps in the framing line, and the complete destruction of the lower left corner.

Without watermark, as mentioned by Meder specifically for impressions of the a variant.

An impression, listed twice by Hollstein, which entered the Eissler Collection after leaving the collection of the Freiherr von Lanna, and was sold at auction 136 by C. G. Boerner under the number 299 in Leipzig in 1921.

Toward the end of his life, Dürer again took up this initially rejected composition. In two marvelous drawings dated circa 1521 (W. 798, Städel Frankfurt and W. 803, Kupferstichkabinett Berlin), and executed in connection with a never finished late Passion series, he took up the motif of Christ lying on the ground with outstretched arms and developed it further into a moving image of humility in the acceptance of the Passion.

32

72

ALBRECHT DÜRER

1471 Nuremberg 1528

33 The Glorification of the Virgin. Circa 1502 Woodcut. 29.4 x 21.2 cm Bartsch 95; Meder 207/Ia (of III f); Schoch-Mende-Scherbaum 185 Watermark: high crown (Meder Wz. 20)

Sheet 20 from the series “The Life of the Virgin” Brilliant early impression prior to the text on the reverse. Wholly clear and ­luminous.

Already showing the barely noticeable crack in the plate, visible as an extremely fine line, next to Mary’s head.

As mentioned specifically by Meder for the a variant, printed on paper with the “high crown” watermark.

With fine margins around the framing line. In an impeccably fresh, utterly pristine state of preservation.

This composition is regarded as the earliest woodcut from Dürer’s “Life of the Virgin,” and may have been produced as early as 1502. With the Mother of God set behind a parapet and surrounded by a dense throng consisting of St. Cath­ erine, John the Baptist, Saints Jerome, Anthony, Paul, Augustine, and Joseph, as well as three angels, the scene is clearly oriented toward the type of the ‘sacra conversatione,’ with which Dürer may have become acquainted during his first stay in Venice: The core motif of Mary with the Child standing on her lap is depicted in numerous large-format works by Venetian artists, among them Mantegna’s Madonna in San Zeno (Verona) and a number of panel paintings by Bellini. The structure of the pictorial space as well reflects the schemata of large altar paintings by Bellini and Vivarini, and is filled with figures behind a parapet according to the model of Mocetto or Crivelli. The flowers arranged on the carpet are reminiscent of works by Crivelli and Antonello da Messina.

(A. Scherbaum) This devotional image, which ultimately – after the artist’s second trip to Italy – came to occupy the concluding position within the “Life of the Virgin,” may have been conceived initially as a title page. Indications of this include the two empty coats of arms held by putti toward the front of the parapet. In keeping with widespread practice, they may have been intended to receive the family crests arms of future owners.

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33

CORNELIS DUSART

1660 Haarlem 1704

34 Hurdy-Gurdy Player with Dancing Dog. 1685 Counterproof. 16.9 x 14.7 cm Bartsch, Dutuit und Hollstein 11 Watermark: countermark IV Provenance: Thomas Graf (Lugt 1092 a)

Scarce contre-épreuve of this charming composition, which numbers among rarest by this artist.

Dutuit mentions only a single further counterproof, found in the British Museum, London.

With margins around the framing line. On the reverse, the contours of the hurdy-gurdy player traced with black chalk. Aside from the traces of folds, visible only on the verso, in a very lovely state of preservation.

Dusart was Ostade’s last and probably most faithful student. The present composition, produced the year of the master’s death, are quite close to the masterworks of Ostade’s early and middle period.

76

34

CORNELIS DUSART

1660 Haarlem 1704

35 Seated Violin Player. 1685 Etching. 27.9 x 24.9 cm Bartsch, Dutuit and Hollstein 15/III Watermark: coat of arms of Amsterdam Provenance: K arl & Faber, Munich, auction 111 (December 1967), no. 89 with ill.

C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, exhibition Ausgewählte Graphik alter Meister, Stuttgart 1968, no. 21

Splendid, tonally rich, deep-black impression of the most exquisite harmony and clarity. With powerful, extremely prominent traces of the roulette, which – in conjunction with an exceedingly delicate plate tone – endows the interior, illuminated by just a few windows, with a delightfully crepuscular atmosphere.

With nice, 2 mm paper margins and an in places inky platemmark. Impeccably fresh.

One of two key compositions by this artist, which, with its charming tavern interior, may have been conceived as a counterpart to the animated plein air scene of the Large Village Fair.

Through the notice hanging on the mantelpiece, and bearing the inscription “TUL – PA AN EN HYACINTEN,” the work refers to international tulip and hyacinth speculation in 17th-century Holland, in which ordinary people participated. Some became quite wealthy as a result, while many others were ruined instead. At the high point of the “tulip mania,” a single tulip bulb is said to have been purchased for the sum of 4600 guilders.

In keeping with the boisterous mood of the scene, the Latin maxim on the lower margin translates to mean: The peasant, untroubled by hypocrisy, rejoices in his heart.

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35

GODEFROY ENGELMANN

1788 Mühlhausen 1839

36 Recueil d’Essais Lithographiques dans les differentes genres de dessin tels que manière de Crayon, de la plume, du pinceau et de Lavis… 1816 – Anne Louis Girodet-Troison (1767 Mantargis – Paris 1824): Um portrait (coupin de Couperie) – Horace Vernet (1789 Paris 1863): Croquis au crayon (Lancier en vedette) – P ierre Antoine Mongin (1761 Paris – Versailles 1827): Un dragon, coucé sous un arbre – J . M. Darmet (active in the 1st half of the 19th century): Un Essai topographique – G odefroy Engelmann (1788 Mühlhausen 1839): Deux têtes l’un d’après une eau-forte de Boissieu, et l’autre d’après une gravure au burin dr Mr Chatillon…

– G odefroy Engelmann: Une fontaine imitant la gravure sur bois – Antoine Laurent Castellan (1772 Montpellier – Paris 1838): Une Paysage au crayon et à la plume rehaussé…

– G odefroy Engelmann: Une Trophée au crayon imitant un dessin sur papier de couleur rehaussé de blanc…, d’après Lafitte

Set of title page, table of contents, and 8 sheets, lithograph, each ca. 30.9 x 23.5 cm (sheet) Lang 64 – 73; exhib. cat. French Lithography, Ontario 1977, illustrations to document I, pp. 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37 – 40

Extraordinarily rare incunabulum of French lithography.

The complete series, from which at most individual sheets are available on the market.

Marvelously pristine untrimmed copy. Still sewn with string into the original blue paper envelope, which has been labeled by hand in brown pencil: “Engelmann / Essais lithographiques.” The title page displays minimal signs of wear at the margins. Aside from occasional brown spotting (mainly on sheet 4), in an impeccable state of preservation.

In 1814, inspired by reports brought to Mühlhausen by E. Koechlin concerning advances in lithography in Munich, G. Engelmann undertook a trip to the Bavarian capital. There, he acquired the requisite knowledge about the procedure from J. B. Struntz, the agent of the lithographic artists Strixner and Pilothy, and was able to go to work that same year in Mühlhausen with a supply of stones and a printing press. In June of 1816, Engelmann opened his lithographic establishment at rue Cassette no. 18 in Paris, where the present series was produced. On August 3, 1816, he presented his lithographic attempts to reproduce various drawing media – whether chalk, pen and ink, or brush, and whether using a burin or an etching needle – to the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, whereupon the members of the commission, which included Heutier, Regnault, Guérin, ­D esnoyers, and Castellan, composed a 25-page report: …Ce receuil, qui acquiert tous les jours plus de varieté, de mérite, et d’importance, a été soumis à l’Académie. La commission qui a été chargée, Messieurs, de vous en rendre compte, a reconnu dans ces ouvrages à-peu-près toutes les qualités qui sont les attributs de la gravure, et de plus, toutes celles qui n’appartiennent qu’au dessin autographe; elle doit donc faire des voeux pour la prosprité de l’établissement que M. Engelmann vient de former dans la capitale; il est même à desirer que cet établissement attire l’attention du gouvernement et en soit protégé; alors il deviendra stable, les artistes pourront y trouver les facilités nécessaires pour multiplier leurs productions dans toute leur originalité, et faire des essais nouveaux qui doivent tourner à l’avantage des arts, de l’industrie, du commerce, et contribuer ainsi à la prosperité et la gloire de la France.

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82

36

FRANZ DE PAULA FERG

1689 Vienna – London 1740

37 Mountain Landscape with Two Men in Conversation. Circa 1726 Etching. 12.9 x 15.0 cm Not listed in Nagler; Le Blanc 8; Weigel 8975; Heller-Andresen 2

Surely the most sophisticated etching among the small number of sheets that comprise this artist’s print oeuvre.

Richly contrasting impression of the most beautiful clarity and transparency, particularly in the background, which was deliberately etched more faintly.

Wiped nearly clean except for a few residues of plate tone, which engender painterly accents with a special effectiveness, for example on the stomach of the young man who stands on the cliff, thereby enhancing the composition’s lucid atmosphere in the most felicitous way.

With fine margins around the framing line.

Around 1724, after stays in Leipzig, Dresden, and Niedersachsen, this artist – a native of Vienna – settled in London, where he soon made a name for himself as a painter of pastorals and other idealized Arcadian landscapes.

As C. L. von Hagedorn reports, Ferg was inspired to take up etching by his friend J. A. Thiele, who had sent his first attempts at etching to London from Dresden, requesting his friend’s opinion. In a reply dated August 25, 1725, Ferg announces his plan to etch a series of eight sheets during the coming winter, which he then published in 1726 under the title “Capricci fatti per F v. F.” Compared with this series, the present single sheet demonstrates how quickly Ferg seems to have made progress in the handling of the new technique, attaining a certain virtuo­ sity and f luency which allowed him to directly emulate his artistic models from the 17th-century Netherlands, immersing his compositions in a ‘golden light’ in a way comparable to N. Berchem.

After this highpoint, Ferg seems to have ceased producing etchings, since the initial group of four single sheets, found today in the collection of the British Museum, and not however mentioned by Le Blanc, must be regarded as representing the artist’s first attempts in the medium.

Of the greatest rarity, as remarked by Weigel already in 1840

84

37

ERNST FRIES

1801 Heidelberg – Karlsruhe 1833

38 Der gesprengte & der Bibliothek Thurm vom Heidelberger Schlosse.

Demolished Tower and Library Tower of the Castle of Heidelberg. 1820 Lithograph printed with one tint-stone. 26.3 x 34.1 cm Winkler 231.9/II; Wechssler 756/I (of II)

Perhaps the most impressive composition from the “Sechs Ansichten des Heidelberger Schlosses” (Six views of the Castle of Heidelberg), the masterpiece among the print works of so-called Heidelberg Romanticism.

Extraordinary fine early impression printed with a dark-ochre tint stone. With the artist’s name and the date “1820” at the bottom right only. Still before the title and the address of the publishers Mohr and Winter in Heidelberg.

The original sheet still untrimmed (40.5 x 53.8 cm). In pristine condition.

During studies at the Munich Academy in 1818, Fries had become acquainted through N. Strixner with the technique of chalk lithography combined with tintstone. This technique involves allowing unprinted white areas of the paper to appear as highlights.

During summer of 1819, upon returning to his hometown, Fries executed drawings of the Castle of Heidelberg and transferred them with striking virtuosity onto lithography stones during the following winter, before again leaving Heidelberg for Munich.

86

CLAUDE GELLÉE Called LE LORRAIN

39 The Herd Returning in Stormy Weather.

1600 Chamagne (Lorraine) – Rome 1682

Circa 1650 – 51

Etching, 16.2 x 22.2 cm Robert-Dumesnil 18/II (of IV); Blum 36/II (of IV); Russell 47/III (of III); Mannocci 40/II A (of II C)

Splendid, richly nuanced early proof of the 2nd state. Before later scratches in the sky, to the left of the round tower, and across the tree on the right, as mentioned specifically by Mannocci. Since the first state is known only from a unique impression in London, this remains the earliest available state.

With 3 mm paper margins around the plate mark. Impeccable.

The etching is regarded as Claude’s first etching after a ten year hiatus during which he produced no prints. A mature and paradigmatic example of the classicism of Claude’s art, a successful symbiosis of a bucolic countryside and classical architec ture which reveals the artist, once again, as an unsurpassed interpreter of the idealized southern landscape, suffused with sun and light.

According to M. Sonnabend, there are no posthumous impressions. It appears that when the artist died, the plate no longer existed. Its proofs are comparatively rare, since Claude apparently made prints only on demand. Like certain other late prints, this etching may have served as a gift.

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88

CLAUDE GELLÉE Called LE LORRAIN

1600 Chamagne (Lorraine) – Rom 1682

40 Time, Apollo and the Seasons. 1662 Etching, 19.9 x 26.0 cm Robert-Dumesnil 20/III; Blum 39/III; Russell 50/IV; Mannocci 43/V B – VI (of VII) Provenance: J.W. Nahl (Lugt 1954) K.E. von Liphart (Lugt 1687) C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, Auction XXII, 1876, no. 906

One of the artist’s last etchings in a magnificent impression of an intermediate state which remained unknown to Mannocci: with the strengthened framing line at the top right, and with the scratch across the cloud, but prior to the scratch that extends from the foot of the column on the right hand side of the ruin through the wings of Time and all the way to the left edge of the plate. Before the later reworking of the plate.

With uniform 1.5 cm paper margins. Impeccable.

This composition, with its subtle allusions to impermanence and its mythological veneer, seems to have been the product of a confrontation with a painting Nicolas Poussin had painted approximately 20 years earlier for Cardinal Rospigliosi (Wallace Collection, London). In Claude’s version, in contrast to Poussin, we find not the Hours dancing to Chronos’ harp-playing, and instead a round dance of the Seasons guided by Apollo. The lyrical inscription found on the lower margin offers a brief explanation: Apollo obeys Time. Spring leads the dance. Nor is Summer, with its heat, absent. Autumn, with his wine, follows as well. And Winter claims its portion of the year.

M. Sonnabend surmised: These words seem to be Claude’s own, although he may have received assistance in their typographic transfer onto the plate. The issue of impermanence, of the regime of Time over everything, including the Beautiful, may have been a personal concern of Claude’s. Only shortly thereafter, in early 1663, when he was seriously ill, he had a testament drawn up. In it, he left the painting ”Dance of the Seasons” (MMP, p. 66) to his nephew Jean, which might have been the model for the etching, but was in fact execu­ ted only subsequently. This little painting is owned today by the Kunsthaus Zürich.

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40

HENDRIK GOUDT

41 The Decapitation of John the Baptist.

Circa 1580 The Hague (?) – Utrecht 1648

Circa 1607/08

After A. Elsheimer

Engraving and etching. 6.4 x 5.0 cm in an oval Dutuit 4/II; Hollstein 4/III; Andrews 48-Engravings a

Exquisite, velvety black impression of the miniature-style oval composition in a state already referred to by Dutuit as rare, and the last that is traceable to Goudt.

With the diagonal line on the costume of the officer who supervises the execution and with the initials of the artist on the plinth. Prior to the later impressions, not mentioned by Hollstein, made from the worn out and scaled-down plate (cf. British Museum S.4962).

Cut down to the oval composition. In excellent condition.

This composition, which goes back to a lost painting by Elsheimer, is regarded as perhaps the earliest engraving produced by Goudt after a work by his friend in Rome. It is laterally reversed as is normally the case, and as confirmed by comparison with Elsheimer’s small gouache in Chatsworth (Andrews 48), which is considered a preliminary study for the actual painting, which was probably executed around 1603/05. Goudt lived in Elsheimer’s household beginning in 1607.

C. T. Seifert surmised that the client was Dr. Johannes Faber, a close friend of the master, who had lived in Rome since 1598. He owned a version of the composition that was printed on silk and framed in ebony, and sent impressions to various friends beginning in 1609, among them the Augsburg merchant and savant Markus Welser.

As documented by a proof in Bremen, Goudt to begin with laid out the composition in simple, etched contours. He then covered these etched lines entirely with a network of engraved lines that are so dense that – decades before the invention of mezzotint – in places he succeeds in producing velvety blacks which contrast effectively with the few unprinted areas, i.e. the ref lections of the torch which illuminates the nocturnal darkness of the scene.

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92

IERONYMUS GREFF called VON FRANKFURT

Active in Strasbourg beginning 1500, died 1525

42 Michael Fighting the Dragon. Circa 1502 After A. Dürer

Woodcut. 38.9 x 27.7 cm From Bartsch XII, p. 130; Heller 1682; Meder p. 158 f.; Hollstein 12 B; cf. exhib. cat. Wirkung und Nachleben Dürers, Nuremberg 1976, nos. 28 – 42, fol. 12; cf. exhib. cat. Vorbild Dürer, Nuremburg 1878, no. 68; T.I.B. 10 commentary 272 C1 Provenance: P & D Colnaghi, London, stock no. C.12579

Plate XII from the series “The Secret Revelations of St. John” The deceptively precise, early copy after Dürer’s brilliant composition from the German edition published in Strasbourg in 1502, i.e. with the German text on the reverse.

Without watermark, as in the complete copy in the Bavarian State Library, Munich. With 2 – 3 mm paper margins around the framing line. Pristine.

Ieronimus Greff ’s “The Secret Revelations of St. John” appeared just four years after first edition of Dürer’s “Apocalypse” of 1498 in both German as well as Latin editions.

This artist, who was active in Strasbourg, and who has not been traced – despite his sobriquet von Frankfurt – in the records of Frankfurt, produced faithful copies of altogether 15 compositions by Dürer in nearly identical formats and with only minimal deviations, but used his own monogram “IVF” in place of Dürer’s.

Michael Fighting the Dragon differs in essential ways from the original by virtue of the reefed sail of the sailing ship, seen here more from the side, which points from lower left toward upper right rather than the reverse as in Dürer. The shado­ wed hillock on the right-hand side alongside the monogram extends all the way to the lower margin.

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42

NICOLAS WALRAVEN VAN HAEFTEN

c. 1663 Gorkum – Paris 1715

43 The Fisherman. 1694 Etching and engraving. 17.4 x 12.2 cm Bartsch and Dutuit 9; Wurzbach 16; Hollstein 23 Provenance: The Princes of Liechtenstein

One of the most powerfully expressive character heads by this artist in a brilliant impression.

The figure of the fisherman, with its deep black, captivatingly simple lines, which were reworked with the burin, has been deliberately shifted into the foremost picture plane, where it is set quite effectively against the only delicately etched, gray horizontals of the background. Only the shouldered stick from which a pair of fish dangles conveys the depth of the indefinite surrounding space. The immaculate freshness of the paper enhances the highly effective lighting effects, with their sharp contrasts of light and dark, in a particularly striking way.

With 3 mm margins below, otherwise with extremely fine margins around the plate­ mark. Mounted at the corners to the original collection support of the Princes of Liechtenstein.

Based on the dating of his etchings and mezzotints, van Haeften seems to have become active as a printmaker only when he was around 30 years old, when he settled in Paris after leaving Antwerp. Alongside his highly marketable genre motifs, it is in particular his detailed, close-up studies of simple people and craftsmen whose expressive faces address the viewer with striking directness, and which are reminiscent of the Netherlandish tronies of the 17th century

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43

ROBERT VAN DEN HOECKE

44 Small Fortification on a Riverbank.

1622 Antwerp – Bergues-Saint-Winoc 1668

Circa 1660

Etching. 15.0 x 21.7 cm Bartsch 17; Hollstein 17/ before I (of II) Watermark: five-pointed foolscap Provenance: G. R. 1799 (not in Lugt) Cevallier J.-G. Camberlyn (Lugt 514) F. Lehmann (Lugt 1025) Amsler & Ruthardt, Berlin, auction XXIV, 1882, no. 1049 Thomas Graf (Lugt 1092 a)

Hitherto undescribed first proof impression of this beautiful single sheet: prior to the addition of the address “F. V. Wyngaerde ex.” on the lower left margin. Prior to the scaling down of the plate.

With margins around the platemark; trimmed into the platemark slightly below.

Rare and sought-after, like all sheets by this artist, especially in such an early state.

Van den Hoecke’s print oeuvre encompasses altogether only 22 sheets. With the exception of two, all are lightly etched landscapes featuring military subjects, which is more than likely attributable to the circumstance that alongside his position as court painter to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Governor of the Habsburgian Netherlands, the artist also occupied the position of Côntolleur des fortifications pour le service de sa Maj. en Flandre.

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98

WENZEL HOLLAR

1607 Prague – London 1677

45 Queen Henrietta Maria of France, Queen of England. 1641 After A. van Dyck

Etching. 15.7 x 11.8 cm Parthey 1537; Pennington 1537/I (of II); New Hollstein 342/I (of II) Watermark: coat of arms of Amsterdam Provenance: C . G. Boerner, Leipzig 1853 G. F. K. Parthey (Lugt 2014)

Exquisite early impression prior to the addition of the number 13, lower left.

With paper margins measuring up to 4.3 cm.

Particularly well qualified by virtue of its provenance from the collection of Gustav Parthey, author of the catalog raisonné of the print works of Wenzel Hollar, published in 1853, who – according to his own handwritten pencil inscription on the reverse – acquired this sheet that same year from C. G. Boerner in Leipzig.

Based on one of the numerous portraits of the English Queen executed on royal commissions by van Dyck beginning in 1632, this etching remains deliberately incomplete. The upper body was never executed, and the row of pearls and the right-hand side earring are only outlined. In the year of van Dyck’s death, this may have been Hollar’s personal expression of reverence for the master, whose self-portrait of 1629/30 represents the first case of work by the artist being reproduced and marketed in a print medium in an unfinished state.

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45

ROMEYN DE HOOGHE

46 CAPRICCI.

1645 Amsterdam – Haarlem 1708

Circa 1675

Series of four sheets. Etching and engraving. Each ca. 16.0 x 11.6 cm Hollstein 359 – 362; Landwehr pp. 375, 376, 381, and 378 Watermark: seven-pointed foolscap Provenance: King Frederick August of Saxony (Lugt 971)

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102

The complete series in uniformly beautiful print quality.

All sheets trimmed to the framing line, and in some cases just short of it. A tiny hole in the sky of the title plate shows an early backing, the right lower corner of sheet 2 reattached, otherwise in excellent condition.

The four “Capricci” are delectable depictions of the good life in Holland’s Golden Age. De Hooghe’s talent as a caricaturist is revealed here in the subtly ex aggerated emphasis on celebrated forms of pleasure.

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46

104

46

HIERONYMUS HOPFER

47 Fortitudo.

Circa 1500 Augsburg – Nuremberg 1563 (?)

Circa 1520/25

After M. Raimondi

Etching on iron. 13.7 x 8.5 cm Bartsch 38/I (of II); Hollstein 42/I (of II) Watermark: “P” (similar to Briquet 8907, dated Augsburg 1519/23) Provenance: A. Freiherr von Lanna (Lugt 2773), Singer 4979 F. Quiring (Lugt 1041c)

Excellent, extremely rare early impression prior to the addition of the number “192” by the publisher D. Funck. On recherche les épreuves avant ces numéro, mais on les trouve rarement. (A. Bartsch) Hollstein lists altogether five impressions in public collections prior to the Funck number.

Brilliant in the contrasts of the clearly drawn lines.

With extremely fine paper margins around the still inky platemark. Impeccable.

Hopfer’s single sheet based on Raimondi’s Fortitudo (B. 375), which Bartsch surmised was itself derived from a design

by Mantegna. While Raimondi’s allegory is focused entirely on the attribute of the column, presented in relation to the female figure as an emblem of strength, Hopfer expands the composition to form a scenic tableau. In his version, the female allegorical figure becomes a saint who, bound to the column with a chain, suffers the flames of a martyr’s death, thereby demonstrating the strength of her faith.

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106

JEAN BAPTISTE ISABEY

1767 Nancy – Paris 1855

48 Escalier de la Grand Tour. Château d’Harcourt. 1821 Lithograph. 25.7 x 15.0 cm Beraldi 4; exhib. cat. Bild vom Stein, Munich 1961, no. 164; exhib. cat. Die Lithographie…., Bremen 1976, no. 82; exhib. cat. French Lithography, Ontario 1976, no. 62-1; M. Henker / K. Scherr / E. Stolpe, Von Senefelder zu Daumier. Die Anfänge der lithographischen Kunst, Munich 1988, no. 185 Provenance: R. A. Winkler (not in Lugt)

Isabey’s principal work in this medium, and at the same time the highpoint of French lithography during the Romantic era.

Printed appropriately on chine collé, this impression remains in a perfect and marvelously refresh state of preservation. With its delicate shimmer, its veil-like, smudged chalk passages, this sheet demonstrates just how perfectly this technique allowed Isabey to transfer the manner he developed in his watercolor and miniature paintings into the lithographic medium.

Characteristic here is the softness of the surface, the pale silver-gray and the nuanced character of light-dark gradations: Isabey’s works are among the best produced during the early phase of French lithography. In “Escalier de la Grande Tour,” his technical and formal mastery is placed at the service of the psychological characterization of the figures. The couple descends the staircase, is about to leave the castle. Just as she walks into the light, into the outer world, so to speak, the young woman takes the arm that is offered to her in support.

Her feminine hesitancy, her lowered gaze, her introversion, allow this step to become a significant moment: the spiral shaped veil that falls downward at her side alludes to her inner agitation. (E. Stolpe) Isabey, one of the first painters to devote himself to lithography, produced this sheet as part of a series of illustrations on Baron Isidor Taylor’s “Voyages pittoresques et romantiques…,” to which Bonnington, Géricault, Vernet, and others also contributed.

108

NICOLAS-HENRI JACOB

1782 Paris 1871

49 The Genius of the Invention of Lithography. 1819 Lithograph. 19.0 x 16.3 cm (composition) Béraldi vol. VIII, p. 159; Inventaire du Fonds Français après 1800, vol. XI, p. 72, no. 13; Winkler 368,2 Provenance: Léon Lang (not in Lugt)

Celebrated allegory of the invention of lithography and its introduction into France.

Superb, brilliantly deep black impression, and a bravura demonstration of the refinement with which Jacob practiced the technique of lithography, and how he explored the potentialities of the new technique in an exemplary way through the application of lithographic chalk, ink, and scraper.

Paper margins measuring 5.5 cm around the composition. Exceptional by virtue of its provenance from the private collection of Léon Lang, the founder of the Société Godefroy Engelmann, Mulhouse.

This composition appeared as plate IX of the “I. Collection de plusieurs essais en Dessins et Gravures pour servir de Supplément à l’Instruction practique de la Lithographie par Alois Senefelder, 1819,” the French edition of A. Senefelder’s instructional treatise.

Beginning in 1803, N. H. Jacob was in the service of Prince Eugène Beauharnais, who, since the fall of Napoleon, had borne the title of Prince of Eichstätt through his marriage to the Bavarian Princess Augusta Amalie, and had lived in Bavaria since 1806. Everything in this allegory is designed to emphasize the close Bavarian-French collaboration in the realm of stone printing: its invention by Senefelder in Munich in 1796; its introduction into France by André, and the establishment of the major printing houses of Engelmann in 1815 and of de Lasteryrie in 1816.

The figure of Genius, who bears Senefelder’s features, holds a lithography stylist in his hand and watches as a muse removes an impression from a Munich printing press, whose Solnhofen lithography stone is labeled “PIERRE DE BAVIERRE” (stone from Bavaria), and on which the names of early French and Bavarian lithographic artists have been registered.

110

CHRISTOFFEL JEGHER

1596 Antwerp 1652/53

50 Silenus Accompanied by a Satyr and a Faun. Circa 1633/34 Nach P. P. Rubens

Woodcut. 44.6 x 33.7 cm Le Blanc 14/I (of II); Schneevoogt p. 135, no. 139; Hollstein 16/I (of II) Watermark: “ B” below “4” and “M” (cf. exhib. cat. Rubens e L’incisione, Rome 1977, watermark no. 155) Provenance: Falkeisen & Huber, Basel (Lugt Suppl. 1008, cf. Lugt 1008)

Extraordinarily fine impression, evenly printed with strong contrasts and as good as the impression in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

The 1st state, before removal of the address of Rubens.

One of only 9 woodcuts executed in close collaboration between artist and xylographer during the final decade of Rubens’ life. They are regarded as highlights of the art of woodcut as a whole (K. Renger).

With the external framing line fully visible. The striking printing relief on the verso preserved untouched. In perfect condition aside from a slight printer’s crease and a scarcely perceptible horizontal drying fold.

Rubens chose Christoffel Jegher to execute his designs because, late in his career, the master became increasingly disenchanted with the overly detailed and overly sophisticated copper engravings cut after his work. With a true artist’s eye he saw in the woodcut a more forceful, more elementary medium of reproduction, a technique that rendered the actual lines of a drawing more faithfully than the engraver’s burin… A mixture of humorous and slightly tragic mood prevails in the woodcut of “Silenus Accompanied by Satyr and Faun”. The forward thrust of the drunkenly swaying body about to fall on its face is ingeniously held in balance by the supporting figures of a satyr and a faun to the right and left. In this carefully structured composition, Jegher’s technical skill is... seen at its best. For comparison very much the same scene is presented in an engraving by Jonas Suyderhof. This is as good an opportunity as any to understand why, toward the end of his career, Rubens changed over to the woodcut medium in rejecting the fussy, overly detailed language of the copper-engraving technique in the Rubens school. (H. Lehmann-Haupt)

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50

GERARD DE LAIRESSE

51 Jupiter and Antiope.

1641 Liège – Amsterdam 1711

Circa 1680

Etching. 15.8 x 22.6 cm Not listed in Le Blanc; Timmers and Hollstein 16/I (of VI?); Hollstein (Gerad Valck excudit) 20/before I; Roy G. 96a Watermark: Strasbourg lily

Excellent early impression prior to the later framing line, and hence prior to inclusion in the compilation “Gerardi de Lairesse, Leodiensis pictoris, Opus elegantissimum,” first published in 1694 by N. Visscher. Prior to the later address of G. Valck.

Brilliant deep-black and of the most beautiful transparency, so that the luminous charm of the scene, lit only by an oil lamp, truly comes into its own.

With 6 – 8 mm paper margins. In an immaculately pristine state of freshness.

In this composition, which also exists in a mezzotint version (Timmers und Hollstein 239), G. Lairesse – an outstanding representative of Dutch classicism – attains une beauté extraordinaire (A. Roy). The amorous episode involving Jupiter and Antiope is transmitted through a variety of ancient texts, including the Odyssey and the Metamorphoses of Ovid, and would become – not least through Cesare Ripa’s Iconographia of 1593 – one of the favorite erotically-charged subjects of Baroque painting. The encounter between satyr and nymph is nearly always illuminated in an effective manner, but only rarely are the lighting effects staged as convincingly as they are here, with only the glow of an oil lamp offering a glimpse of the god’s assault on the sleeping nymph within the nocturnal darkness.

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114

JEAN-BAPTISTE LE PRINCE

1734 Metz – St. Denis du Port 1781

52 I er SUITE de Cœffures dessinées d’après nature. 1768 Set of 6 plates. Etching and aquatint. 15.3 – 14.3 x 10.9 – 11.4 cm Hédou 103 – 108; Inventaire du Fonds Français, graveurs du XVIIIe siècle, tome XIV, pp. 464 – 465, nos. 113 – 118

One of Le Prince’s earliest trials in the “Gravure au Lavis” technique, which he invented.

The complete homogenous set containing proof impressions that have never been described.

Hédou’s classification of the various states is incomplete, and is not arranged in the correct sequence. He distinguishes three states: Before numbers; backgrounds toned with aquatint.

With numbers.

Backgrounds no longer fully toned, weak = late The impressions of the present set are numbered and, except the title page, display backgrounds that are only partially toned with aquatint. They therefore appear to correspond to Hédou’s 3rd state.

A comparison with the series in the New York Public Library (whose backgrounds are completely covered with aquatint tones of varying intensity, and are likewise numbered) shows that our impressions are by no means late, and are instead delicate early proofs, i.e. produced before the plate was reworked with aquatint, and hence not described by Hédou.

The later, reworked states in the Public Library show clear traces of the earlier, only partially toned backgrounds. Due to the additional aquatint tones, the figures show striking differences in internal structure.

Consequently, the correct sequence of states reads as follows: Before numbers. Backgrounds partially with aquatint.

With numbers. Backgrounds partially with aquatint.

With numbers. Backgrounds completely toned with aquatint, figures with additional aquatint retouching.

Late proofs with weakened aquatint.

The present state proofs represent instructive documentation of the early phase of Le Prince’s career, when he seems to have explored the potentialities of the new technique in a relatively tentative fashion.

Inspired by Dutch models, particularly in the area of light-dark contrasts, he sought for ways to translate his pictorial inventions into a print medium with the help of tonal expressive resources.

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118 52

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52

LUCAS VAN LEYDEN

1494 Leiden 1553

53 Christ before Annas. 1509 Engraving. 21.8 x 22.1 cm in a circle Bartsch 59; Volbehr 56; Hollstein 59; New Hollstein 59 a (of b) Watermark: tall crown (New Hollstein Wz 5b) Provenance: ligated monogram Cw (not in Lugt)

Excellent early impression, without the decorative molding printed from a sepa­ rate plate. Prior to the later pale impressions printed from the scratched plate.

With fine margins around the framing line. In an excellent state of preservation aside from a few brownish spatters and minimal area of abrasion on the left-hand side.

With the compositions of the “Round Passion,” the still-young artist entered into direct competition with his great predecessors Schongauer and Dürer. Although oriented toward his artistic models with regard to compositional structure, he attains a heightened intensity through expressive gestures and physiognomies, whose psychological penetration testify to van Leyden’s enormous storytelling talent.

The circular format may well refer directly to Dutch stained-glass painting, but at the same allowed the artist to focus in a highly effective way on the unfolding events of the narrative. In the present composition, the Denial of Peter is shifted adroitly into the background as a parallel action, allowing the abandonment of Jesus to appear with even greater poignancy.

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AUGUST LUCAS

1803 Darmstadt 1863

54 The Resurrection of Lazarus. 1828 After F. Overbeck

Lithograph with 2 tint stones. 39.6 x 49.1 cm Nagler 1; Lade, lithograph 3; Boetticher (Overbeck) oil painting 18

An early key work of Nazarene art by Overbeck, translated into the lithographic medium by A. Lucas.

Excellent impression featuring the particularly effective use of two different yellow tint stones, the lighter of which serves as a foil for the composition as a whole, and suggesting a wide chine collé margin, frames the image. At the same time, it harmoniously integrates the highly effective highlights omitted from the darker tint stone, preventing the white of the paper from appearing excessively bright.

With 5.5 – 8 cm margins. A few brown stains perceptible only outside the image or on verso. Otherwise pristine.

Lucas’s lithograph is based on a small devotional painting by Overbeck commissioned in 1822 by Philipp Passavant, a cousin of Johan David Passavant, later the director of the Städel in Frankfurt, which is found today in the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. Overbeck had already produced an earlier version in Vienna in 1808 (Museum für Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck). The subject of this work, referred to later by the artist as his “firstborn,” was explicitly programmatic: Resurrection is intricately paired with the idea of conversion. The quote from John stems from the story of Lazarus, whom Christ calls back to the living (John 11: 18 – 46). Tellingly, Lazarus was the subject of the very painting Overbeck had called his “firstborn” and from then something like a leitmotiv. For Olivier, as for Overbeck, Lazarus embodied both a religious and an artistic principle. His resurrection stands for the need of an inner conversion, a complete transformation of the self, which the Lucasbrüder considered essential not only for attaining eternal life, but also for finding the path to true and good, that is holy art.

(Cordula Grewe, Painting the Sacred in the Age of Romanticism, Farnham/Burlington 2009)

122

CHARLES ANDRÉ MALARDOT

1817 Metz – Paris 1879

55 Hunter in a Thick Forest. Circa 1850 Etching. 28.7 x 42.8 cm Not mentioned by Beraldi, Bellevoye, lacking in the Inventaire du Fonds Français.

Graveurs du XIXe siècle, tome 15

Brilliant early impression, apparently before all textual additions. Annotated in pencil by the artist (?) below the image “Malardot.”

With 2.2 – 5.2 cm margins.

This undescribed composition is a welcome addition to the small graphic œuvre – containing only 33 plates – of an artist who was active within to the circle of Bresdin.

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124

ARCHDUCHESS MARIA ANNA OF AUSTRIA

1738 Vienna – Klagenfurt 1789

56 Nocturnal Fire. 1772 After J. C. Brand

Etching and mezzotint. 18.8 x 25.3 cm Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und freyen Künste. vol. 21, 1778, p. 135; not in Nagler Provenance: The Princes of Liechtenstein

Exquisite, velvety deep black trial proof prior to the framing line and the inscription on the lower margin, which identifies the work as “gemahlet und geetzet von [painted and etched by] S. K. H. Erz. H. Ma. Anna 1772” for the publication of a series of etchings by the Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. An impression with text is included gratis as an extra.

With fine margins around the inky platemark. Mounted in places on the original collection support of the Princes of Liechtenstein. In an immaculately fresh state of preservation.

Maria Anna of Austria was the second daughter of the Empress Maria Theresia and Franz Stephan von Lothringen. Her artistic gifts were developed in particular under the guidance of her drawing teacher Friedrich August Brand to the level of the highly respected mastery, specifically in the art of etching, allowing her to become an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Engravers in Vienna as early as 1767. In his foreword to the Catalogue of Engravings, Etchings and Lithographs by Women: Exhibited at the Grolier Club 29 East Thirty-Second Street, April 12 to 27, 1901, Frank Weitenkampf credits her with a decidedly artistic feeling and a more than respectable mastery of technique.

This particularly striking etched mezzotint by the Archduchess was probably based on a work by Johann Christian Brand, brother of her drawing instructor.

Himself a student of Schmutzer, he familiarized her with the fundamentals of the technique. In 1778, a series of 16 etchings she had published in 1772 received praise in the der Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und der freyen Künste under the heading “New copperplate prints and news of the arts from Vienna”: We have sixteen etched sheets from her hand… When viewing these rarities, and without being distracted from the path of truth by the hand of flattery, we are of the opinion that no connoisseur would take these sheets for mere dilettante work, but would instead accord them the high status they must elicit from the most meritorious expert… Particularly beautiful are a pair of very dark mezzotint sheets: a nocturnal conflagration in the manner of Van der Poel and a moonlit scene in the manner of van der Neer. We are astonished here again by the truthfulness of expression both of these artists achieved through the lighting arrangement, and everything seems to have been created in their spirit, to have come directly from them, to have been transferred so masterfully to copper that both halves of this pair take their place with justice among the best works in this art form.

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ARCHDUCHESS MARIA ANNA OF AUSTRIA

1738 Vienna – Klagenfurt 1789

57 Moonlight. 1772 After F. A. Brand and J. C. Brand

Etching and mezzotint. 18.8 x 25.3 cm Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und freyen Künste, vol. 21, 1778, p. 136; not in Nagler Provenance: The Princes of Liechtenstein

A trial proof every bit as striking as that of its pendant, a scene of a nocturnal fire, which was singled out for praise in the 1778 edition of the Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und freyen Künste from among a series of 16 etchings (cf. the preceding catalog number).

Still with the incompletely cleaned plate margins and the incised artist’s address: “Fried: Brand” beneath the composition. Prior to the later framing line and the engraved text “gemahlet und geetzet von S. K. H. Erz H. Ma. Anna 1772.”

Fine margins around the inky platemark. Mounted in places along the margins on the original collection support of the Princes of Liechtenstein. Immaculately fresh.

The signature incised lightly beneath the composition probably refers less to the active assistance of the artist’s teacher F. A. Brand in preparing the copperplate and instead to the drawn model he supplied, found today in the Albertina in Vienna, (inv. no. 5070), which in turn goes back to a composition by J. C. Brandt.

This certainly puts the comments of the reviewer in 1778 into perspective: Nothing here is a copy, everything is original, or instead imitation interwoven with original ideas. It is a small, estimable collection of valid tests of powers of invention and capacities for expression… Which meritorious artist would not envy Friedrich Brand the honor of instructing such an admirable princess, who allows him to find his reward for his duties in her works of genius!

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ISRAEL VAN MECKENEM circa 1440/45 Meckenheim bei Münstereifel(?) – Bocholt 1503

58 Christ before Annas Circa 1480 Engraving. 21.0 x 14.5 cm Geisberg 64/IV (of VI); Lehrs and Hollstein 144/IV (of VI) Watermark: c oat of arms with two lilies and two fish (Briquet 1654, datiert 1479/94; cf. Lehrs Wz. 35) Provenance: A . G. Gerstäcker (Lugt 1077) B. Hausmann (Lugt 377)

Quite excellent impression of the 4th state, with both of the scrolls at the upper end of the monogram and the diagonal lines on the wall to the right of the throne and lowest step of the throne. Prior to all subsequent reworkings.

Printed on paper with the watermark “coat of arms with two lilies and two fish,” as specifically mentioned by Lehrs for impressions from the 4th state.

With fine margins around the framing line. Pristine and impeccable.

A part of the “Great Passion,” one of this artist’s key works, the present composition also demonstrates van Meckenem’s independent approach to narrating the Passion story. Unlike his great model Schongauer, who concentrates the indivi­ dual scenes of the Passion almost like devotional images, Meckenem is fond of ‘fabulating,’ and follows multiple narrative strands simultaneously, designing intricate spatial sequences which betray their Netherlandish inspiration in order to incorporate multiple scenes in each image. In this spirit, the palace of the high priest provides a setting for three different episodes: Annas’ interrogation, the Denial of Peter, and finally, in the left-hand background, the Mocking of Christ. Detectable nevertheless is a direct borrowing from Schongauer’s passion sequence, to which A. Rieter has called attention: The figure of the myrmidon, seen from the rear, who leads Christ by the arm, is derived from the executioner’s assistant, also situated on the right-hand side, in Martin Schongauer’s “Pilate Washing his Hands” (Lehrs 24).

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58

JAN VAN DER MEER III

1657 Haarlem 1795

59 Recumbent Sheep with Two Lambs. 1685 Etching. 10.7 x 13 cm Bartsch, Dutuit and Hollstein 1 Watermark: Seven Provinces Provenance: P. Davidsohn (Lugt 645) C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, auction CXXX, 1920, no. 1318 Hollstein und Puppel Thomas Graf (Lugt 1092b) C. G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, Neue Lagerliste 24, 1959, no. 147 Private collection, south Germany

Exquisite, delicately printed, early impression of a composition already referred to by Bartsch as très rare. The two upper corners of the plate still pointed.

With paper margins measuring up to 8 mm in width. The collector’s stamp of Thomas Graf shows through, but is barely noticeable. Otherwise impeccable.

This rare single sheet is one of only four known etchings by this Haarlem landscape and animal painter. Highly esteemed in particular were his depictions of sheep. In this genre, according to Bartsch, he surpassed even his teacher N. Berchem.

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CHARLES MERYON

1821 Paris 1868

60 La Tour de l’Horloge. 1852 Etching and drypoint. 25.5 x 18.3 c, Delteil-Wright 28/III (of X); Schneiderman 23/III (of X)

Brilliant proof, printed on greenish laid paper – “vergé verdâtre” – and preserved in an exceptionally fresh condition, never having been exposed to light.

With the artist’s initials at the upper right corner. Before the strengthening of the framing line and before the erasure of the horizontal line in the still blank bottom margin, before the italic inscription for the publication in the journal L’Artiste, and before all further reworking.

With margins measuring up to 1.7 cm around the inky platemark.

Like a snapshot, the composition represents the Tour de l’Horloge and the adjoining wing of the law courts partially hidden behind scaffolding during the restoration campaign. The operation was drastic, to some extent even involving demolition and rebuilding.

J. D. Burke analyzed the genesis of the composition with reference to the drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris: The final composition as seen in the etching is actually combined from two separate views… the end result is a view that appears to be actual but cannot be pinpointed on a map or found while walking on the street. This idea is at the heart of much great landscape art, which often seeks to convince the viewer of the accuracy of the whole while actually abstracting and recombining elements from nature.

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MARTIN VON MOLITOR

1759 Vienna 1812

61 Ruined Castle on a Hillside. Circa 1780/90 Etching. 17.2 x 26.3 cm Bartsch and Nagler 42

Excellent early impression that has remained unrecognized in the literature to date, still with clearly visible polishing marks. Prior to the later reworking with the burin, in particular of the trees and bushes, for the final version, an impression of which is included here as an extra .

In his catalogue raisonné, published in 1813, A. von Bartsch summarizes: Ses estampes réunissent à l’originalité des idées et à un beau choix des sites, un dessin savant, une pointe facile et souvent un effet très brillant.

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MONOGRAMMIST AB Identical with JAN ABRAHAMSZ. BEERSTRATEN (?) 1622 Amsterdam circa 1666

62 Jesus Walking on Water. Circa 1650 Galiot with Spouting Whale. Circa 1650 Two sheets. Etching. 12.8 x 17.7 cm, and. 13.2 x 18.0 cm Nagler, Die Monogrammisten I, p. 72, no. 159, 160.1 and 2/I (of II); Wurzbach (Beerstraten) and Hollstein (Beerstraeten) 1 and 2; Hollstein (Monogrammist AB) 1/I (of II) and 2; I. de Groot and R. Vorstman, Sailing ships, Maarssen 1980, nos. 58 and 59 Provenance: F ranz Josef Graf von Sternberg-Manderscheid (?)

J. G. A. Frenzel, auction held on May 4, 1840, no. 3137 (?)

King Frederick August II of Saxony (Lugt 971)

Splendid impressions of these extremely rare pendants.

Jesus Walking on Water in the first state, described to date only by J. G. A. Frenzel in 1840 in the catalog to the Sternberg-Manderscheid Collection under the number 3137, prior to the ligated monogram AB F in the lower left corner.

King Frederick August II of Saxony presumably acquired this sheet together with its pendant at the auction of this collection held in Dresden on May 4, 1840.

The framing line minimally trimmed in places, in others down to the platemark.

Mounted at the corners to the green support from the royal collection, and inscribed there with the red inventory numbers 77834 and 77835.

Of the greatest rarity, especially so beautiful, without the disturbing printing folds visible in the Rijksmuseum impression.

This pair of sheets represent the sole known etchings by this artist, whose monogram AB has yet to be conclusively elucidated. Brulliot identified the artist with A. Casembroot, Nagler tended toward A. Blom, and Wurzbach, finally, toward J. A. Beerstraten, an attribution adopted by Hollstein in vol. I, not however in vol. XIII. These works are more than simple seascapes, depictions of various types of sailing ships or sailing boats which are enhanced by means of episodes from everyday nautical life or from the Bible, and brought together by the artist more or less arbitrarily to form a pair. The crucial connective link between the compositions is their emblematic character, discussed persuasively for the first time by de Groot and Vorstman. Here, the ship is a symbol of human life. Now propelled advantageously by gentle breezes, now menaced with destruction by turbulent seas, only a connectedness to the Christian faith offers any firm support, since Jesus, who walks across the water, holds the anchor chain. And dangers such as the whales which, it was believed, deliberately rammed ships, but could be distracted by tossing barrels overboard, are interpretable in relation to the readiness to sacrifice one’s treasures, if necessary, in order to save one’s life (or one’s eternal soul).

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62

THE MONOGRAMMIST FG

63 Mucius Scaevola before Porsenna.

Active in Germany and Italy (?) in the first half of the 16th century

1537

Engraving. 11.5 x 7.8 cm Bartsch IX, p. 24, no. 2; Nagler, Monogrammisten 2914, no. 2

Excellent impression of the most beautiful clarity and brilliance.

With extremely fine margins around the platemark; trimmed to the platemark below. In immaculately fresh condition.

Despite various attempts to identify this monogram, biographical details for this artist remain shrouded in darkness. Close relationships between many of his engravings – dated 1534 – 1537 – and the circle of Nuremberg minor masters, suggest German origins.

In contradistinction to Pencz, who incorporated the story of Gaius Mucius Scaevola as reported by Livy in a series devoted to Roman heroes, the Monogrammist FG devoted two single sheets, dated 1535 and 1537, to this legendary figure from Rome’s early history.

The present, later version depicts the protagonist in an elegant rear view, holding his right hand with his sword in the flames as a testament to his courage. In this way, according to legend, he saved the City of Rome from a being besieged by the Etruscan King Porsenna. Having penetrated the enemy camp, the hero mistakenly slayed the king’s scribe rather than the king himself, and was then brought before Porsenna. During questioning, he insisted that numerous Romans had already infiltrated the enemy camp and were seeking to take the king’s life, reducing the latter to a state of terror, and moreover evading the threatened fire torture, intended to loosen his tongue, through this spontaneous demonstration of bravery.

While his right hand burned in the flames, he betrayed no trace of pain. Overwhelmed by this example of fortitude, Porsenna is said to have given Gaius Mucius this freedom, and canceled the siege of Rome. Mucius thereby acquired the nickname Scaevola (left-handed).

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140

JEAN MORIN

Circa 1605 Paris 1650

64 Henri de Lorraine, comte d’Harcourt. Circa 1643/44 After Ph. de Champaigne

Etching and engraving. 29.3 x 23.7 cm Robert-Dumesnil 58; Hornibrook & Petitjean 20/I–II (of III); Mazel 069/1er état A-C (of E) Watermark: double C in laurel wreath [fragment] (Hornibrook & Petitjean wm 9)

One of the loveliest portraits etched by Morin in an excellent impression that features the entire spectrum of painterly tonal values which this artist was cap­able of evoking through a range of graphic textures. Marvelously rich in contrasts, and at the same time of the greatest delicacy in the smooth transitions, specifically the f lesh tones and the hair, with the imitation of various materials never standing in the focus of interest.

With the still conspicuous marks of burin slippage which run across the contours of the D in GR AND and the frame profile on the lower left, as described by Mazel for the 1er état A, a and b, but prior to the later scratches in the right-hand upper spandrel (1er état D).

Trimmed down to the composition. Impeccable.

Morin is regarded as a congenial interpreter of paintings of his father-in-law­ Ph. De Champaigne, whose student he was. Thirty of his altogether circa 50 etched portraits are based on prototypes from de Champaigne’s hand. But in his interpretation of his model he was singularly personal; his plates give the impression and have the qualities of original work. He is more interested in character and personality, and less in technical finish than was the case with most French engravers, and his tones, though very full, are disposed so as to make the plate effective, rather than to imitate closely the tones of the painting… Morin’s plates are so personal, such admirable interpretations of their models, and so rich in attractive qualities that they are among the most sympathetic of all French portrait engravings. They are far superior to ordinary reproductive engravings, and indeed have a certain suggestion of greatness. (T. H. Thomas)

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ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE

1610 Haarlem 1685

65 The Fair. Circa 1660 Etching. 12.5 x 22.7 cm Davidsohn and Godefroy 48/II (of IV); Hollstein 48/II (of III) Watermark: five-pointed foolscap Provenance: P rince Soutzo (Lugt 2341) J. Rosenberg (Lugt 1519) R. von Seidlitz, without stamp (not in Lugt) C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, auction CIX, 1912, no. 893

Superb impression.

Of unrivaled beauty and brilliance, far surpassing the 3 – 4 exemplars that have surfaced over the past-40 years (!). The earliest available on the market, the 2 nd state referred to by Godefroy as trés rare, since the 1st state – prior to the addition of the artist’s monogram – is known only through a unicum in London.

A painstakingly nuanced plate tone. Scratches of the drypoint needle above the small tree on the right in front of the church still clearly visible. The ‘spacious’ wipe marks in the area of the sky, the fine burr on the artist’s monogram on the banner: all are authoritative characteristics of an early impression.

This impression was specifically mentioned by Bourcard and Godefroy, and originates from the famous Ostade collections of Prince Soutzo and J. Rosenberg, and was formerly in the possession of R. v. Seidlitz.

The sensational 800 RM paid for this print at the auction of this collection, organized by C. G. Boerner in Leipzig in 1912, was by a large margin the highest price paid, despite the comprehensive offering of major prints by this artist, and would seem to confirm the exceptional quality of this impression, described with corresponding effusions in the auction catalog as A marvelous impression… With uncleaned plate margins... on foolscap paper, with margins... Seldom seen in such beauty, freshness, and tonal fullness.

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65

ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE

1610 Haarlem 1685

66 The Breakfast. Circa 1647 – 52 Etching and drypoint. 21.9 x 26.1 cm Davidsohn 50/VIII (of XI); Godefroy and Hollstein 50/VIII (of XII) Watermark: Initials “PD” Laurentius wm. 27 Provenance: S otheby’s, London, auction of June 29 – 30, 1987, lot 221 South German private collection

Excellent impression.

Vigorous deep-black, with the entire wealth of the differentiated tonal values, additionally modulated by the delicate plate tone, and hence allowing the composition’s atmospheric effect to find complete expression.

The rare 8th state, with the hatchings below the bench where the woman is sea­ ted, but prior to the fine lines in the shadows.

With 6 mm margins beyond the deeply imprinted platemark.

This detailed depiction of a peasant household is regarded as the chef d’oeuvre among Ostade’s print works, probably executed in connection with a now lost painting. In contrast to Godefroy’s dating of circa 1664, Schnackenburg assigned the etching to the period 1647 – 1652.

The Breakfast is one of Ostade’s very finest etchings, marking the apogee of his career…

Impressions showing clearly all the work in the background are rare. (S. W. Pelletier)

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66

DOMENICO PERUZZINI

1602 Urbania (Pesaro) – ? after 1673

67 Bust Portrait of a Bearded Old Man. Circa 1650 Etching. 15.4 x 10.2 cm Bartsch XXI, 152, 5 (D. Piola); Nagler XII, p. 497, no. 5 (D. Piola); Nagler Monogrammisten 2, 1311, 2; T.I.B. 47 part I commentary, p. 224, no. 029 Watermark: circle with somewhat illegible motif Provenance: A. C. de Poggi (Lugt 617)

Superb impression of this extremely rare sheet, bearing a psychologically penetrating likeness of a bearded old man, who appears as the quintessence of the wise old man, who appears as the quintessence of wise old man, rich in the exper­ ience and knowledge of a lifetime, who awaits the future with a clear, undaunted gaze.

Powerful deep black impression with vigorous linear structure. In conjunction with the delicate traces of polishing, the pronounced plate tone generates spectacular effects of illumination, producing a rather melancholic atmosphere.

Cut down to the platemark or with extremely fine margins around it.

Impeccable.

The interpretation of the monogram D. P. has always been the subject of dispute.

Bartsch associated the so-called Bust Portrait of a Bearded Old Man with the five etchings he attributed to Domenico Piola, whereby in the others, he already perceived the hand of Domenico Peruzzini. In light of the bold draftsmanship of this sheet, Bartsch’s attribution to Piola was called into question already by Nagler. P. Bellini, finally, included it in Peruzzini’s oeuvre, which had been meanwhile grown to include 34 works. Initially inf luenced by F. Barocci, he became a student of S. Cantarini after resettling in Pesaro: Peruzzini’s syle, particularly in certain etchings, recalls that of Simone Cantarini, but the light and luminous background of the Pesarese is replaced in Peruzzini’s work with a preference for shading... and for gray tones… His style of etching was rich with spunti and was unique. (P. Bellini)

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67

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI

1720 Venice – Rome 1778

68 Parte del Foro di Nerva. Circa 1748 Etching. 13.4 x 26.8 cm Focillon 46; Hind p. 76, no. 6; Salamon 6/I (of III); Wilton-Ely 108) Watermark: lily in double circle (Robison 40)

Sheet five of the series “ALCUNE VEDUTE DI ARCHI TRIONPHALI” Excellent, splendidly deep black impression with marvelous plate tone.

Prior to the modification of the number “I,” which should probably be read as a “5,” into a “6,” or the later number “369a” on the upper right for the edition of 1835/39, published by Firmin-Didot.

One of the exquisite plates, based on sketches made during Piranesi’s travels in Italy, c.

1743 – 47… may be considered among the artist’s graphic masterpieces ( J. Wilton-Ely).

First published in 1748 under the title “ANTICITA ROMANE DE’ TEMPI DELLA REPUBLICA, E DE’ PRIMI IMPERATORI,” the series received the title, current until today, of “ALCUNE VEDUTE…” in 1756, after the publication of the “ANTICITA ROMANE OPERA IMPERATORI DI GIANBATTISTA PIRANESI…” With lovely, 4 – 9 cm paper margins around the platemark, which has been preserved in striking relief entirely without pressing.

Evident here in comparison with the “PRIMA PARTE” of 1743 are distinctive changes to Piranesi’s etching style: After his stay in Venice, his strokes become lighter, freer, and more varied under the influence of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Now, the rendering of a luxuriously proliferating nature is bound up inextricably with the depiction of the ruins, whose deterioration is interpreted in painterly terms. Piranesi’s intention is still to produce “pictures,” with archaeological documentation remaining in the background, as later in the ANTICITA ROMANE [OPERA DI GIANBATTISTA PIRANESI]. Nor is the isolated building his theme, but instead its integration into its surroundings. In these views, Piranesi’s gaze always assumes a lowered observation point, so that the ruins loom up high above, illustrating their monumentality … In 1748, when still working on the series, or after its completion, Piranesi seems to have immediately begun translating his artistic conceptions of the vedute into large formats, thereby laying the foundations for the task which accompanied him throughout his life in the VEDUTE DI ROMA. (C. Höper)

152

JOHANN ANTON RAMBOUX

1790 Trier – Cologne 1866

69 Aeusere Ansicht der roemischen Baeder zu Trier.

Exterior View of the Roman Baths at Trier. 1826 Lithograph. 38.6 x 50.1 cm (image); 57.2 x 72.2 cm (sheet) From Nagler 2; D. Ahrens, exhib. cat. Johann Anton Ramboux, Ansichten von Trier, Trier 1991, no. 8, fig. 62

Plate 7 of the series “Picturesque Views of the Most Remarkable Ancient Monuments at the Most Excellent Natural Sites in the Valley of the River Mosel near Trier…,” vol. 2.

Very fine impression, perfectly demonstrating the full range of grey and black tones made possible only by lithography technique.

Immediately after his return from Italy, Ramboux began work at the print shop of Joseph Selb in Munich on his edition of views of the most important Roman ruins remaining in northern Europe. The artist transferred his preliminary drawings onto the lithographic stones with his own hands. They were published between 1824 and 1827 in four parts, each containing four compositions.

Although originally planned in eight parts, which would have included the medi­ eval monuments found in Trier as well, the undertaking was cancelled due to a lack of demand from subscribers. Today, this publication – one of the very earliest examples of the art of lithography in Germany – is among the greatest rarities of German Romanticism. We were unable to trace a single complete set on the market, while the series is rarely found in public collections in a complete form (the British Museum, for example, owns only four plates, including the present composition; cf. exhib. cat. German Printmaking in the Age of Goethe, London 1994, no. 131).

With nearly complete margins.

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69

REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN

70 Christ Healing the Sick: The Hundred Guilder Print.

1606 Leiden – Amsterdam 1669

Circa 1648

Etching, drypoint and engraving. 28.0 x 39.7 cm Bartsch, Rovinski and Seidlitz 74/II (of IV); White-Boon 74/II; Hind 236/II; Biörklund-Barnard 49 – 1/II; New Hollstein 239/II (of IV) Watermark: Strasbourg lily, Hinterding variant B.h with countermark IHS, Hinterding variant B.3.

A consummate creation and the pinnacle of Rembrandt’s chiaroscuro technique. (Seidlitz) Marvelously effective impression.

Almost opaque in the deeply shadowed parts of the background, whereas the figural groups, especially in the left foreground, are cleanly wiped and of most beautiful transparency. The delicate burr of the drypoint work additionally enhances the subtly differentiated half and middle tones by means of painterly accents.

Trimmed down to the platemark. Perfect aside from a few tiny, unobtrusive brown stains.

Rembrandt’s most famous etching was already held the highest esteem by his contemporaries. Among the numerous stories offered as explanations the name “Hundred Guilder Print” is the following one: Gersaint records that Rembrandt traded the etching for some prints by Marcanton offered to him by a print seller from Rome at a price of one hundred guilders.

Meticulously prepared through a series of figure studies, the “Hundred Guilder Print” is regarded as Rembrandt’s most ambitious, complex and highly worked composition as a printmaker… That it is known in only two seventeenth-century states, with the minor difference between them of additional shading over the neck of the donkey on the right and on the far wall of the archway, belies the exceptional effort that the plate represents in terms of imaginative power, technical brilliance and pictorial finish. Rembrandt applies every tool at his command and in a variety of styles, from freely outlined Pharisees in debate on the left, flooded in light, to the precise rendering of the textures that apparel the figures who enter from the right. All the groups are subjugated to the overriding ‘chiaroscuro,’ which ranges from the deep blacks into which Christ’s halo melts away, to the area left white which suggests a sudden source of startling illumination… (M. Royalton-Kisch)

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70

REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN

1606 Leiden – Amsterdam 1696

71 The Three Orientals. 1641 Etching. 14.3 x 11.4 cm Bartsch, Rovinsky, Seidlitz and White-Boon 118/II; Hind 183/II; Biörklund-Barnard41-F/II; New Hollstein 190/II Watermark: c rowned Strasbourg lily coat of arms (variant C.i.b [1642], Hinterding II, pp. 206 and 283, III, p. 441) Provenance: Fürstlich Waldburg Wolfegg’sches Kupferstichkabinett (Lugt 2542) H. G. Gutekunst, auction 58, May 27, 1903 and succeeding days, no. 643

Splendid impression.

Printed in a brilliant deep black. The sketchy lines of the composition, executed quickly with the etching needle as though with pen and ink, are set off against the white of the paper, which is articulated by the delicate plate tone. The figures seem almost to dissolve in the gleaming light of the midday sun.

Like the impression in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, printed on paper with the coat of arms with lilies watermark which Hinterding dates to 1642.

With 3 – 4 mm paper margins around the platemark, itself preserved without f lattening. In a pristine state of preservation aside from pin perforations at the four corners, outside of the composition.

Categorized by Bartsch among the “Sujects allégoriques, historiques et de faint­ aisie,” the composition was first interpreted by Ch. Blanc as depicting the episode involving Jakob and Laban found in Genesis (30:25 – 34), a reading which has not received support.

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71

REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN

1606 Leiden – Amsterdam 1669

72 The First Oriental Head. 1635 Etching and drypoint. 15.2 x 12.5 cm Bartsch 286; Rovinski, Seidlitz and White-Boon 286/II (of III); Hind 131/II; Biörklund-Barnard 35-E/II (of III); New Hollstein 149/ II (of V) Watermark: A rms of Amsterdam (variant F.a.a, Hinterding vol. II, pp. 31 and 323, vol. III, p. 36) Provenance: P. Gellatly (Lugt 1185) H. G. Gutekunst, Stuttgart, sale 70, 1911, lot 997 J. Cantacuzène, Bukarest (Lugt 4030) Hotel Drouot, Paris, sale of June 4 – 6, 1969, lot 218 Unknown collection, blind stamp ‘circle with f lower (?)’ (not in Lugt)

Extremely fine impression, rich in contrasts. Still shows delicate burr in the drypoint work.

In conjunction with the extremely delicate plate tone, the faint vertical wipe marks in the background emphasize the singular atmosphere with which the artist sought to imbue this composition in in the most felicitous way.

The earliest available state, since the first state, prior to the reworking of the sitter’s neck, is known only from a single impression in London.

Like the impression in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, printed on paper with the “arms of Amsterdam” watermark.

With very fine margins around the platemark, or cut down to it in places. In a perfect, pristine state of preservation.

This composition, which appeals directly to the beholder through the gaze of the sitter, an old man in Oriental costume, belongs to a loosely connected series of four etchings which are generally known under the title ”The Four Oriental Heads” (B. 286 – 289). These works are free, laterally reversed interpretations of studies of heads (tronjes) etched by Jan van Lievens around 1631, in this case the En Face Bust of an Oriental Man (Hollstein 36). Rembrandt deliberately signed his composition “Rembrandt geretuc 1635,” which may have been tantamount to “improved by Rembrandt.’” Significantly, he never came closer to directly emulating the work of another printmaker. Thus, although the inscription do not mention his source by name, these etchings show that Rembrandt maintained a competitive interest in his old ­f riend’s work long after the artists parted company in 1632. (S. S. Dickey)

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72

LUDWIG RICHTER

1803 Dresden 1884

73 VI Bll. Picturesque Views of the Surroundings of ROME. 1831/32 Ostia Monte Circello Rocca di Mezzo Olevano Ponte Salaro Castel Gandolfo

Series of six sheets. Etching. 15.2 – 15.5 x 19.6 – 19.9 cm Hoff-Budde 210 – 211/III (of IV); 212IV (of V); 213/III (of IV); 214/IV (of V); 215/III (of IV) Provenance: Emil Schröter (Lugt 2270)

The complete series, including the rarely seen original blue-green envelope.

Homogenous set of splendid impressions printed on rolled-on ‘Chine collé.’ All prior to the later numbering “1 – 6.” Each bearing the blind stamp of the pub­ lisher C. G. Boerner (not in Lugt).

With paper margins measuring up to 7 cm.

The enormous success of Richter’s “Picturesque Views from the Vicinity of Salzburg,” which appeared in 1830, prompted his publisher C. G. Boerner to announce the production of a successor series already in April of the following year. This time, the geographic focus would be Italy.

The present work, which constitutes the second volume of “ETCHINGS by ­LUDWIG RICHTER,” appeared in 1832, and contained six views of the surroundings of Rome. For this work, Richter drew upon drawing and sketches produced during his stay in Italy between 1823 and 1826. C. G. Boerner, with whom Richter had remained in close contact since the two became acquainted in Rome 1823/24, kept the artist informed concerning the progress of work on the series. On ­February 19, 1832 he wrote: I heartily hope that these pages will meet with approval …

At least I can claim in all honesty that I have done my utmost to take full advantage of your generous remarks and suggestions to the extent possible, and summa summarum; – if they are not good – I could not have done them any better.

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73

HUBERT ROBERT

1733 Paris 1808

74 Landscape with Fallen Tree. 1764 Etching. 19.2 x 14.8 cm Baudicour 14

One of the very few etchings from the artist’s own hand. Robert etched only six additional related single works during the final years of his stay in Rome, alongside the series Soirées de Rome, consisting of ten sheets, and two illustrations to Louis de Subleyras Nella ventura in Roma di Madama le Comte e die Signori Watelet et Copette.

The present composition is among these individual works. It is the sole landscape in Robert’s graphic oeuvre.

Trimmed down to the platemark or with very fine margins around it. In a beautiful, pristine state of preservation aside from two negligible traces of glue along the edges.

Robert had acquired expertise in etching technique only slightly earlier as a student at the French Academy in Rome under the inf luence of C. H. Watelet,­ J. C. R. de Saint Non, and F. E. Weirotter, so that this sheet is still thoroughly experimental in character. The composition was never published as an edition.

Of the greatest possible rarity. We have been unable to document any sales during the past 50 years.

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74

CHRISTOPHANO ROBETTA

1462 Florence after 1535

75 Allegory of Love. Circa 1515/20 Engraving. 30.2 x 28.3 cm Bartsch XIII, 406, 25; Hind 29; T.I.B. 25 commentary 043 Watermark: coat of arms (similar to Heawood 707 – 709)

Unusually homogenous impression of this enigmatic composition. The volumes of the bodies still effectively accentuated by the delicately modulated internal drawing; the vertical line near the left margin and the horizontal above the knee of the woman still readily distinguishable, as mentioned specifically by Hind as an indication of especially fine impressions.

Trimmed down to the platemark. A short tear at the left edge unobtrusively mended, otherwise in excellent condition.

Typically for the artist, this composition combines northern Alpine with gen­ uinely Italian elements. Whereas the landscape seems to be inspired by Dürer’s early engravings, the figures were apparently influenced of the drawings by Filippo Lippi or his circle.

The interpretation of this intricate allegory has never been convincingly resolved.

It may ref lect Neoplatonic ideas, and may allude to the transitoriness of carnal love. The man who is being bound to the tree by Amor at the center appears to be the proverbial captive of love. Although she still caresses him with one hand, his beloved already turns her attention toward another young man, who approaches from the left. On the right, in contrast, it is the male who takes the active role in abducting the object of his lust. The genies assigned to each group have been interpreted as Hypnos and Thanatos.

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CHRISTIAN BERNHARD RODE

1725 Berlin 1797

76 The Cherub Proclaims Death to Adam and Eve. Circa 1768/71 Etching. 30.8 x 20.4 cm Nagler and Jacobs 1 Provenance: The Princes of Liechtenstein

This composition, which is extremely unusual in iconographic terms, was mentioned for the first time in 1771 in F. Nicolai’s Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek as being the first sheet of Rode’s so-called “2nd Collection” under the title “Adam and Eve When an Angel Tells Them of Death.” There is no such scene in Genesis.

With a fondness for new, unconventional pictorial creations that was typical of him, Rode dramatically stages the punitive word of God to the first human couple, who have become stained with sin through the enjoyment of the forbidden fruit. His verdict culminates in the sentence: For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Subject now to mortality, Adam and Eve are driven from Paradise. For them – despite the fact that Adam had dropped the fruit stolen from the tree of knowledge, bitterly reproaching Eve – there is no way back to the Garden of Eden. The cherub, now acting as guardian, blocks the way, his f laming sword calling attention to the new lot of humankind: death.

Excellent, richly contrasting impression which does full justice to the painterly effects of the etching gradations so skillfully deployed by Rode, with the more weakly etched figure of the Angel seeming almost to dissolve in gleaming light.

With ca. 5 mm paper margins around the framing line, or in places with ex­­ tremely fine margins around the platemark. Mounted at points along the margins to the original collection support of the Princes of Liechtenstein. In a flawless state of preservation.

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CHRISTIAN BERNHARD RODE

1725 Berlin 1797

77 Memorial Sheet for the Artist’s Deceased Brother Johann Heinrich Rode.

Circa 1759

Etching and lavis-etching. 16.6 x 11.2 cm Not in Nagler; Jacobs 164/II (of III) Provenance: the Princes of Liechtenstein

An evidently experimental memorial to the artist’s prematurely deceased brother in an excellent early impression, with the text, but prior to the later acid splashes within the pale portrait medallion.

With paper margins measuring up to 12 mm around the platemark. Mounted at the corners to the original collection support of the Princes of Liechtenstein. In an immaculately fresh state of preservation.

One of the early, very private etchings by this artist, who was trained – primarily as a portrait painter – by A. Pesne. Referred to by C. Jacobs as “finger exercises,” they served C. B. Rode as a field of experimentation for various graphic techniques. In the present case, he explored the possibilities of surface etching with the acid applied directly to the plate with a brush, reworking the highlights with the burnisher.

The unpredictability of the acid application, so difficult to control, which at times produced only cloudy or veiled effects in the background, and accidents such as the imprint of a finger which came into contact with the acid, are exploited by Rode in a congenial way in this almost surreal memorial sheet. Like a fata mor­ gana, the spiritualized portrait of his brother appears in an aureole in the billowing darkness left behind by the just extinguished oil lamp. Now broken, it can no longer hold the oil, the wick deprived of fuel, and it dies away – not unlike the artist’s beloved brother. Left behind are only the tools of the graphic artist – pen, burin, etching needle – which intersect to form a cross.

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JOHANN HEINRICH RODE

1727 Berlin 1759

78 Portrait of a Boy. Circa 1750/53 After G. F. Schmidt

Etching. 13.0 x 9.7 cm Nagler 27; Soldan (Falbe) 33; Anna Schulz, Die Radierungen von Joachim Martin Falbe (1709 – 1782). Einige ergänzende Bemerkungen zu Wilhelm Soldans Verzeichnis, no. 33

Portrait of a boy with an alert, defiant gaze which addresses the viewer with great directness, here in a richly contrasting impression that underscores the pen and ink drawing style of the etching technique in the most felicitous way.

With 1 – 2 mm margins around the platemark. In a pristine, fresh state of preservation.

According to Nagler, this charming portrait was based on a drawing by G. F. Schmidt, on whose recommendation the 22-year-old artist, a native of Berlin, was received into the circle around J. G. Wille in Paris, an entrée that allowed him to perfect his training as a graphic artist. Heinecken – who emphasizes in particular a portrait of Wille (Nagler 2), also based on a drawing by Schmidt, among Rode’s Parisian works – relates that after a stay of four years, the artist returned from Paris to Berlin, where he died at a young age in 1759.

This sheet, which remains unsigned, was associated by W. Soldan erroneously with J. M. Falbe – an attribution called into question recently by A. Schulz with reference to the old collective volumes in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett devoted to works by the brothers Christian Bernhard and Johann Heinrich Rode, including the present sheet. Finally, an impression in the Austrian National Library in Vienna bears the old pencil inscription “Heinrich Rode” (inv. no. POR_00116639_01); there, it is even regarded as the artist’s self-portrait.

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78

KER-XAVIER ROUSSEL

1867 Lorry-Lès-Metz – L’Étang-la-Ville 1944

79 Landscapes. Circa 1898 People at the Seashore Woman in Red in a Landscape Woman in a Striped Dress Bathers Cupids Playing near a Nymph Women in the Country

Complete set of 6 color lithographs. Each c. 20.5 – 25.0 x 33.5 – 42.0 cm Salomon 14 – 19

The masterpiece of this artist’s print oeuvre.

Complete set of superb, exceptionally fresh impressions on chine.

Each signed in pencil by the artist.

Homogenously uniform set of uncut sheets.

Commissioned by Vollard in 1897, the series was initially planned as the third album of the “Peintre-Graveurs,” and was to have comprised 12 compositions.

When two earlier albums by Bonnard and Vuillard failed to sell, the dealer abandoned the Roussel album. Instead of an album, a series of six lithographs was published around 1900 in an edition of 100, with quite a few prints remaining unsigned.

All of the plates were printed by A. Clot, Vollard’s master printer, who also worked for Cezanne, Denis, Redon, Renoir, Sisley, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

The six lithographs printed by August Clot are remarkable for their pastel palettes, rococo figure-types, and fluttering surfaces, which are very different from the artist’s earlier style.

The first three depict woman and children in contemporary dress, playing in meadows or woodlands; the following three are based on pastoral, classicizing motifs. But even within this grouping there are significant differences. “Bathers” is made up of spots and Impressionist-like dashes of color on a cream-colored ground. In “Woman in the Country” and “Cupids Playing near a Nymph” Roussel changed to a nearly monochromatic dark background, from which summarily defined figures emerge. Although these have been linked to Cezanne’s 1896 small “Bathers” lithograph published by Vollard. Roussel’s dreamy soft-­ focused figures seem closer in spirit and technique to Henri Fantin-Latour’s black-and-white lithographs of bathing nymphs, also commissioned by Vollard. (Exhib. cat., Cezanne to Picasso. Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde, New York 2006)

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79

40

79

79

79

180

79

79

JAN SAENREDAM

Circa 1565 Zaandam – Assendelft 1607

80 Three Goddesses. Circa 1595 Minerva Venus Juno After H. Goltzius

Series of three sheets. Engraving. Each ca. 20.8 x 14.2 cm Bartsch and Wurzbach 56 – 58; Hollstein 60 – 62/I (of II); New Hollstein (Goltzius) 606 – 608/I (of II) Watermark: eagle or basilisk Provenance: A. Castagnari, Rome (Lugt 86a)

The complete series in a homogenous set of splendid early impressions. Prior to the later address “CIV Vißcher” on the lower right on “Minerva” and the numbers 2 and 3 on the lower right on Venus and Juno respectively .

With ca. 1 cm paper margins around the inky platemarks. Impeccable.

With his decorative opulence and the brilliance of the rendering of the materials, Saenredam must be regarded alongside de Gheyn as among the best engravers of the school of Goltzius (K. Oberhuber).

Saenredam’s series brings together portraits of the three Greek goddesses Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera (Minerva, Venus, and Juno), who together triggered the Trojan War through their participation in a beauty contest.

The laterally reversed preliminary drawings by H. Goltzius (Reznicek 137 – 139) are found in the Museum Kunstpalast, Graphische Sammlung, Düsseldorf.

According to Reznicek, they were produced in connection with preliminary works for the series the “Three Goddesses” (New Hollstein 141 – 143), which Goltzius presumably engraved himself in 1596. The physiological similarities are un­­ mistakable.

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80

184

80

JEAN-CLAUDE-RICHARD DE SAINT-NON

1727 Paris 1791

81 The Watering Place. 1766 After H. Robert

Etching and aquatint. 18.3 x 14.3 Guimbaud 31; de Cayeux 104 Provenance: D. Allan, 1797 M. Fenaille, Paris (cf. Lugt 655)

One of the artist’s very first aquatint etchings.

Exemplary, fine early impression. Printed in dark brown bister tones whose delicate, subtle gradations perfectly match the rich contrasts of light and dark that distinguish H. Robert’s design.

With 2 mm margins. Perfect.

During his stay in Italy in 1759 – 61, Saint-Non formed friendships with J.-H. ­Fra­gonard and H. Robert. Accompanied by one or the other artist, he intensively explored Rome and the environs of the ‘Eternal City’ as far as Naples.

Upon returning to Paris, Saint-Non began experimenting together with J. B. Delafosse on the development of a new technique of printing surface tones, so-called aquatint, whose rudimentary beginnings he may have witnessed in Le Prince’s workshop. Even some years before 1769, when Le Prince presented the new technique to the Paris Academy, he already succeeded in producing marvelous, extremely advanced aquatint etchings, which imitate the virtuoso pen and wash drawings of his friend H. Robert – the present work being an excellent example.

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JEAN-CLAUDE-RICHARD DE SAINT-NON

1727 Paris 1791

82 The Stubborn Donkey. 1770 After J.-H. Fragonard

Etching and aquatint. 19.4 x 27.2 cm Guimbaud 56; de Cayeux 112 Provenance: D. Allan, 1797 M. Fenaille, Paris (cf. Lugt 655)

Already referred to by Guimbaud as assez cherchée, this charming composition in a lovely rare impression in delicate bister tones.

With fine paper margins around the platemark.

Having returned to Paris after a stay in Italy, Saint-Non devoted himself again to etching, basing his work primarily on drawings by artists he had befriended in Rome. In 1762, he produced his first etched version of a composition by ­Fragonard which is known as “The Stubborn Donkey” or “The Donkey Stall,” a work found in the Metropolian Museum of Art, New York (accession no.

69.574.12), but listed neither by Guimbaud nor Cayeux. The original drawing, presumably executed in chalk, does not seem to have survived. Known today is only a reversed version in pen and ink with wash found in the Fondation Ephrussi de Rotschild, Saint-Jean-Cap Ferrat.

The composition must have fascinated Saint-Non to an exceptional degree, for in 1770, just eight years later, having mastered the fundamentals of the new technique of printing surface tones or so-called aquatint, around 1765 in collaboration with J. B. Delafosse, he translated the work a second time into the print medium. This time, he surely based his work on a pen and ink drawing with wash by his friend that resembles the one found in Fondation Ephrussi Rothschild.

Now, he succeeds masterfully in translating the virtuoso wash effects into various surface tones, while renouncing etched contour lines almost entirely. That ­Fragonard was directly involved in this intentional ‘play’ with the effects of various graphic techniques is documented by a lost version, dated 1770, formerly in the Goncourt Collection, to which Rosenberg refers as the direct model.

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82

GEORG FRIEDRICH SCHMIDT

1712 Berlin 1775

83 Self-Portrait Drawing. 1752 Etching and engraving. 21.1 x 17.2 cm Jacoby 134; Nagler 111; Andresen 54/II; Wessely 102/II; Le Blanc 103/II

The artist’s first Rembrandtesque self-portrait in a truly brilliant impression that displays almost burr-like effects and is striking by virtue of the rich scale of grey and black tones. The delicate plate tone slightly intensified toward the partly inky edges of the platemark, emphasizing the composition’s intended effects of illumination.

With 7 mm margins surrounding the composition like a frame. Impeccably fresh and pristine.

This composition, executed in 1753, cites Rembrandt’s etching Self-portrait Drawing at a Window (B. 22) of 1648. Renouncing architectural accessories, Schmidt focuses entirely on the figure of the sketching artist. In a way that is comparable to the etching by the Dutch artist, the Berlin court engraver presents himself sitting more or less frontally across from the viewer and engaging in direct eye contact with him. An artist’s self-portrait which displays great intensity and immediacy. …the artist’s penetrating gaze, as well as the sense of intimacy established by the nearness of the figure and the forward edge of the table to the picture plane, gives the viewer the impression that he or she is the sitter for the portrait. The disproportionately large head, accentuated by the wide, soft beret, adds to the sense of the artist’s intensity. ( J. Clifton)

190

83

JOHN SMITH

84 Anthony Henley Esq.

1652 Daventry – Northampton 1743

1694

After G. Kneller

Mezzotint. 34.8 x 25.0 cm Chaloner-Smith and Russell 126/II; Wessely 133/II Watermark: LL (similar to Heawood 3018, dated England 1688)

Extraordinarily brilliant impression of outstanding print quality. Velvety in the deep black areas, and with the entire spectrum of finally differentiated intermediate tones, all the way to the few cleanly burnished highlights, where the gleaming white of the unprinted paper shines brightly, endowing the sitter – who is depicted as utterly self-confident – with a convincing presence. The viewer can almost hear the rustling of his silk cape.

With 1 cm paper margins around the unpressed platemark. Impeccably fresh.

J. Smith is regarded as the first British printmaker of European reputation (A. Griffith).

His astonishing virtuosity and handling the burnisher recommended him to G. Kneller as a desirable partner when it came to disseminating his grandiose portraits of the English nobility to a wider public in the form of mezzotint sheets.

The two began working intensively together in 1689, with Smith consistently initiating his work prior to delivery of the painted portrait to the commissioning client.

The portrait of Anthony Henley dates from 1694, and depicts the artistically inclined noblemen at the age of 27 years, before he joined the Whig Party and turned his attention toward politics. He mastered a number of musical instruments, had a pleasing singing voice, and was a recognized authority concerning musical matters in general. His abilities allowed him to lend support to Henry – and in particular Daniel – Purcell, contributing to the completion of his unfinished opera “Alexander.”

A preliminary study by Kneller, a chalk drawing of the head with white highlights, is found today in the National Gallery in Washington.

192

PIETER CLAESZ SOUTMAN

Circa 1580 Haarlem 1657

85 Turkish Prince on Horseback. Circa 1620/30 After P. P. Rubens Etching. 32.7 x 22.3 cm Schneevoogt p. 145, no. 76; Hollstein 16/IV Effective, richly contrasting impression with the address “P. P. Rub. Pinxit” in place of “Adam Elsheimer Inuent.”

With narrow paper margins around the platemark. In excellent condition with the exception of isolated repairs to the margins and a tiny wormhole on the left leg of the horse.

P. Soutman is regarded as the only high-quality etcher among the engravers grouped around P. P. Rubens.

As an assistant in Rubens’ workshop, he enjoyed access to a rich fund of drawings by the master. It remains unclear, however, the degree to which Soutman produced his etchings directly on commission from Rubens.

During his stay in Rome, Rubens became acquainted with A. Elsheimer, whose work he esteemed. Rubens borrowed a number of small, miniature-style eques­ trian figures from the background of Elsheimer’s Stoning of St. Stephen of 1603 (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburg), then in the possession of P. Bril, assembling them to form an new, independent composition (drawing, British Museum, London). After Rubens’ return to Antwerp, this drawing served him as a source of inspiration in various contexts, i.e. the Oriental heads in the monumental ­Adoration of the Magi, painted in 1609 for the town hall in his hometown. In preparing for the present etching, Soutman reworked the sheet with his own hand, endowing it with a more pictorial character.

194

85

LAMBERT SUAVIUS (ZUTMAN)

86 The Entombment of Christ.

Circa 1510 Liège – Frankfurt 1574/76

1558

Engraving. 17.8 x 20.4 cm Passavant 2; Hollstein 4 Watermark: Delphin (similar to Briquet 5845)

Superb impression of the loveliest brilliance and clarity, down to the densest hatching lines. In a way that is characteristic for Suavius, these lines define the simultaneously modulating surface tones in suggestive ways, immersing the forms of the composition in a striking play of light and shadow, with the engraved line playing a subordinate role as a shaper of contours.

With fine margins around the platemark. Impeccable.

Lambert Suavius became acquainted with current tendencies in Italian art through his brother-in-law and instructor Lambert Lombard, who had visited Rome in 1537/38. He adopted the style of Italian Mannerism to such a degree that even Vasari praised him as an engraver, praising in particular his bella et capriosa maniera. His style may be partly attributable to the circumstance that in place of a conventional burin, Suavius used a diamond point to engrave his plates, allowing him to achieve the exceptional fineness of his engravings.

86

196

WALLERANT VAILLANT

1623 Lille – Amsterdam 1677

87 Bust of a Child Facing Left. Circa 1665 After F. du Quesnoy

Mezzotint. 14.8 x 12.0 cm Not in Wessely; Hollstein 160 Provenance: T. Graf. (Lugt 1092 a)

Unknown early state proof. Prior to the brightening of the cast shadows on the wall on the right behind the bust.

G. Luijten lists only three copies of this sheet, which itself remained unknown even to Wessely; the others, all of which lack the cast shadows, are found in public collections in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Hamburg.

Trimmed down to the platemark or with extremely fine margins around it.

Impeccable.

Vaillant was one of the most productive mezzotint artists of the 17th century. He learned the fundamentals of the technique directly from Prince Rupert of the Rhine, and perfected it to such an extent that Sandrart praised him having raised the ‘black art’ so high that in truth, it cannot be brought any higher, remarking that his works were highly prized by collectors and were expensive to acquire.

Du Quesnoy’s bust of a boy served Vaillant as a model for two mezzotint sheets (Hollstein 159 and 160), in which he repeated the charming motif from the same perspective, albeit turned in the opposite direction, and through which he experi­ mented with effects of illumination in order to emphasize the plasticity of his model as effectively as possible, as the present sheet strikingly documents.

As we see clearly from the base of the shoulder, the original sculpture was not a finished work in marble, i.e. one comparable to du Quesnoy’s bust of a boy in the Milwaukee Art Museum (M1978.120), and instead presumably the original modello that preceded it, or a plaster cast of the modello. Such plaster casts were standard furnishings of an artist’s studio, and drawing after casts was an obligatory part of every painter journeyman’s training.

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FRANZ EDMUND WEIROTTER

1733 Insbruck – Vienna 1771

88 Figural Group With Nocturnal Fire. 1760 5 sheets. Aquatint and etching. 14.1 x 19.6 Nagler in 12 and 23; Winterberg 56 Provenance: The Princes of Liechtenstein

A highly interesting compilation of the five for the most part undescribed state proofs, which make it possible to reorder the sequence of states proposed by Winterberg. They strikingly document the tentative approach of the young artist, who experiments here with etched surface tones so to speak prior to the invention of aquatint, repeatedly reworking the plate in order to elicit continually novel effects through the exploitation of the at times fortuitous results.

In an initial etching process, he seems to have covered the pictorial field of his copperplate with a uniformly fine, grainy ‘aquatint tone,’ and signed the plate on the lower right “F. Weirotter gr 1760.” (1st state).

Starting from this nearly homogenous, deep black surface, he begin working, like a mezzotint artist, with the burnisher, to form highlights, and then procee­ ded to etch linear structures here and there, so that emerging now from the darkness are the silhouettes of a group of companions who have gathered around a fire at nighttime underneath a gnarled tree. (2nd state) In a succeeding phase, he brightened the composition somewhat, namely through the addition of highlights to the figural group around the fire, and gave clear definition to two vertical tree trunks at the center. Recognizable on the left of the rocks with the gnarled tree is the back of the man, who walks towards the left.

(3rd state) For the publication, Weirotter’s teacher J. G. Wille, who published the composition as sheet 10 of the series “XII Vues de la Normandie,” erased the first signature and replaced it with the engraved address “F. E. Weirotter fecit” at the center of the composition, adding the number “10” to the upper left. (4th state [=Winterberg 56/II]) To improve legibility, he then further lightened the composition in parts. In particular, the glow of the fire on the right was extended so that it illuminates the figures more adequately. The gnarled tree at the center has acquired greater clarity, while emerging into visibility along the left-hand side of the picture is a large bush. The man seen from the back has now been covered again with lavis-etching or aquatint. (5th state [=Winterberg 56.I, weak impression]) Weirotter then once again reworked the plate – which had meanwhile, after a few impressions, begun to show clear traces of wear (cf. impression 56.I, illustrated in Winterberg) – intensively with aquatint before using the burnisher to lay out the landscape scenery, now consisting of dense shrubbery with gnarled, wildly ramifying branches. Now, the figural group around the fire has been noticeably reduced. The woman with the basket on her head on the far left no longer holds a child by the hand, while the figure seated behind the fire is no longer accompanied by a child on the right; of the five figures that originally stood on the righthand side, only two remain. (6th state [Winterberg 56/III, weak impression])

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1st state

2nd state

3rd state

202

5th state

6th state

GEORG ANDREAS WOLFGANG

1631 Chemnitz – Augsburg 1716

89 Bird Hunters with Dogs. 1661 After J. H. Schönfeld

Etching and engraving. 27.5 x 20.9 cm From Nagler 46; Krapf 85; exhib. cat. Johann Heinrich Schönfeld, Ulm 1967 no. 217; Pée NS 15 Provenance: Amédée Faure (Lugt 115)

Splendid early impression, still with partially inky platemark.

Displaying wide margins. Pristine.

G. A. Wolfgang was one of the most prolific engravers working after models by J. H. Schönfeld, who settled in Augsburg in 1651/52 following a twelve-year stay in Italy. Initially, Schönfeld seems to have sought access to the market by producing small-scale genre paintings depicting soldiers, shepherds, and hunters. In 1661, Wolfgang published a series of six such works in Augsburg under the title “­ Variae Capryc” among them the present composition, with the large forked tree of the kind Schönfeld was fond of using in the years around 1654. Schönfeld’s original has not survived.

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CONTE ANTONIO MARIA ZANETTI

1680 Venice 1767

90 Apollo and Marsyas. 1724 After F. Parmigianino

Chiaroscuro woodcut from four blocks. 21.6 x 14.5 cm Bartsch XII, p. 173, no. 33; T.I.B. 48, p. 298, no. 33

Brilliantly splendid impression printed in an attractive color scheme consisting of pale mauve, two contrasting browns, and pale, grayish beige. The unprinted areas of the pristine paper appear as especially effective white heightening.

With fine margins beyond the borderline. In impeccable condition, especially with regard to the colors, of a fresh, unadulterated luminosity.

The composition may have been executed after a drawing by Parmigianino which Ugo da Carpi had already used 200 years earlier as a model for a chiaroscuro woodcut (Bartsch XII p. 123, no. 24). It may have belonged to the group of drawings which Antonio da Trento purloined from the master’s studio, and which were acquired subsequently by T. Howard, 2 nd Earl of Arundel (1586 – 1646) on his journey to Italy in 1612 – 1613. Zanetti – who visited London on his ‘Grand Tour’ in 1720 – acquired the drawing as a part of a collection of 130 drawings by Parmigianino. They stimulated him in his attempt to revive the technique of the Italian chiaroscuro woodcut, and served as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for his art.

In his Apollo and Marsyas, Zanetti competed self-confidently with Ugo da Carpi’s earlier version. It is no accident that he dedicated the print to the eminent collector and connoisseur Pierre Crozat, who may well have held an impression of da Carpi’s print in his collection, allowing him to compare the two directly.

Zanetti’s chiaroscuro woodcuts are not distinctive solely by virtue of their exceptional color combinations. With Zanetti, the figures of Apollo and Marsyas appear slimmer and more animated thanks to the improved drawing of the bodies, particularly of the Apollo, both of whose legs are now visible. The pictorial space is airy, and has now acquired greater depth through the structuring of the standing space and the pale sky. The mottled, bright areas which result from blank areas on the tone plate endow Zanetti’s depiction with a lifelike surface that corresponds to the visual habits of the 18th century, but which of necessity departs from Ugo da Carpi’s version. (D. Graf)

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90

INDEX OF ARTISTS H. Aldegrever P. Anichini Anonym Deutsch Anonym Niederländisch R. van Audenaerde H. Baldung Grien F. Bartolozzi A. von Bartsch C. Bega B. Beham H. S. Beham S. A. Bolswert P. Bout F. A. Brand J. C. Brand R. Bresdin F.-H. Buhot W. P. Buytewech J. Callot A. Canal gen. Canaletto A. L. Castellan G. B. Castiglione Ph. De Champagne J. B. S. Chardin J. Chevillet D. V. Coornhert J. Cootwyck J. M. Darmet A. Dürer A. Dürer C. Dusart A. van Dyck A. Elsheimer G. Engelmann F. de Paula Ferg E. Fries F. Fontebasso J.-H. Fragonard C. Gellée gen. Le Lorrain A. L. Girodet-Troison H. Goltzius H. Goudt I. Greff gen. von Frankfurt N. W. van Haeften M. van Heemskerck R. van den Hoecke W. Hollar R. de Hooghe H. Hopfer J. B. Isabey Catalogue: Michael Weis English Translation: Ian Pepper

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1, 2 3 4 5 6 7, 8 9, 10 11 12 13 14, 15 16 17 -› 57 -› 56, 57 18, 19 20 21 22 -› 23 36 24 – 26 -› 64 -› 27 27 28 29 36 30 – 33 -› 42 34, 35 -› 45 -› 41 36 37 38 -› 9 -› 82 39, 40 36 -› 80 41 42 43 -› 28 44 45 46 47 48

N.-H. Jacob 49 C. Jegher 50 G. Kneller -› 84 G. de Lairesse 51 J.-B. Le Prince 52 L. van Leyden 53 A. Lucas 54 C. A. Malardot 55 Erzherzogin Maria Anna 56, 57 I. van Meckenem 58 J. van der Meer 59 C. Meryon 60 M. von Molitor 61 P. A. Mongin 36 Monogrammist AB 62 Monogrammist FG 63 J. Morin 64 A. van Ostade 65, 66 F. Parmigianino -› 90 D. Peruzzini 67 G. B. Piranesi 68 P. Potter -› 29 F. du Quesnoy -› 87 M. Raimondi -› 47 J. A. Ramboux 69 Rembrandt 70 – 72 L. Richter 73 H. Robert 74 H. Robert -› 81 C. Robetta 75 C. B. Rode 76, 77 J. H. Rode 78 K.-X. Roussel 79 P. P. Rubens -› 21, 85 J. Saenredam 80 J.-C.-R. de Saint-Non 81, 82 G. F. Schmidt 83 G. F. Schmidt -› 78 J. H. Schönfeld -› 89 J. Smith 84 P. C. Soutman 85 L. Suavius 86 W. Vaillant 87 H. Vernet 36 F. E. Weirotter 88 G. A. Wolfgang 89 D. Zampieri called Domenicino -› 6 Conte A. M. Zanetti 90 F. Zuccaro -› 10

VERKAUFSBEDINGUNGEN Die Echtheit aller Graphikblätter wird ohne Einschränkung garantiert.

Rückgaberecht bei Nachweis von Mängeln gegenüber Katalogangaben.

Die Preise verstehen sich in Euro und sind Nettopreise. Bei Zahlung in fremder Währung gilt der uns auf dem Konto gutgeschriebene Euro-Betrag als geleistete Zahlung.

(Bankkonto bei der Frankfurter Volksbank e.G., Börsenstraße 1, D-60313 Frankfurt am Main, BLZ 501 900 00, Konto 144100) EU-Standardüberweisung: IBAN: DE85 5019 0000 0000 1441 00, BIC (SWIFT): FFVBDEFF Der Galerie unbekannte Kunden bitten wir um Referenzangaben.

Ansichtssendungen werden gerne ausgeführt, müssen jedoch 3 Tage nach Erhalt zurückgeschickt werden. Festbestellungen haben Priorität.

Versand auf Kosten und Gefahr des Bestellers. Versicherung zu seinen Lasten.

Alle Waren bleiben bis zur vollständigen Bezahlung unser Eigentum (§449 BGB).

Erfüllungsort und ausschließlicher Gerichtsstand ist Frankfurt am Main

CONDITIONS OF SALE The authenticity of all items is unconditionally guaranteed. If any print is found to be inaccurately described it will be taken back.

The prices are payable in Euro and are net. If payment is made in foreign currency, only the amount in Euro is current, which is credited to our account at: Frankfurter Volksbank eG, Börsenstraße 1, D 60313 Frankfurt am Main, BLZ 501 900 00, account no. 144100 (IBAN: DE85 5019 0000 0000 1441 00, BIC (SWIFT): FFVBDEFF) Foreign clients are requested to remit payment net of bank charges.

Items will be sent on approval to institutions or clients known to us, but must be returned within 3 days of receipt. Firm orders will take precedence. The client is liable for all costs and risks of shipping, including transit insurance.

Title is reserved until complete payment of good (§449 Civil Code of Germany) If any dispute arises, the Court in Frankfurt is competent for both parties.

P. S. Rumbler

International Fine Print Dealers Association

H. H. RUMBLER