Hans Weiditz II’s woodcut, “The Devil and the Rich Man”, 1531

Hans Weiditz II (aka The Petrarch Master) (1500–1536) (Designer)

“The Devil and the Rich Man” (aka “Vertwijfelde man en duivel bij kisten gevuld met munten” [Rijksmuseum title]; “Desperate man and devil near chests filled with coins”), 1531, woodcut printed and published in 1531 in Augsburg by Heinrich Steiner (fl. 1522–1548) as illustration to the verso of page 10 (X) of Johann Neuber and Johann von Schwarzenberg’s translation of Marcus Tullius Cicero’s (106–43 BC), “Officia M.T.C.: ein Bůch, so Marcus Tullius Cicero der Römer, zů seynem Sune Marco, von den tugentsamen Ämptern vnd Zůgehörungen, eynes wol vnd rechtlebenden Menschen” (Official M.T.C. [Marcus Tullius Cicero]: a book, according to Marcus Tullius Cicero the Romans, zů seynem [in addition to?] Sune Marco, of the virtuous offices and belongings, one who wants to live with the law; see https://archive.org/details/gri_33125012281362/page/n37/mode/2up).

The Royal Academy offers the following insights regarding the publication in which this print features: “Cicero's De Officiis is a treatise on duties, in three books in the form of a letter to the author's son, Marcus. It was written in 44 B.C. In the first book Cicero analyses the virtues of Wisdom, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance; in the second and third he discusses how they may harmonise with social and political expediency - taking examples from ancient Greek and Roman history” (https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/book/officia-m-t-c-ejn-bu-sup-e-sup-ch-so-marcus-tullius-cicero-der-ro-sup-e-sup).

Woodcut on laid paper trimmed with a small margin around the image borderline, with letterpress text verso concealed under a backing sheet.

Size: (sheet) 10.5 x 16.5 cm; (image borderline) 10.1 x 15.8 cm.

Scheidig 200 (Walther Scheidig 1955, “Die Holzschnitte des Petrarca-Meisters zu Petrarcas Werk von der Arzney bayder Glück des guten und widerwärtigen: Augsburg 1532”, Berlin, p. 42, cat.no.200).

See also the description of this print offered by the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.725890.

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression showing minor signs of wear to the printing plate—note the gap in the printing of the rich man’s cloak—trimmed with a narrow margin around the image borderline and laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. The sheet is in a good condition with no tears, holes, folds, significant stains or foxing.

I am selling this curiously wonderful woodcut showing in graphic terms that rich are chained by their desperate desires—here a rich man looking at chests of coins is chained at his legs to the devil (his desire) who points to the treasures and offers the rich man a neck ring extension to his chains—for AU$248 (currently US$165.76/EUR149.98/GBP132.03 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this finely detailed woodcut from the German Renaissance, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold 

Pierre Etienne Moitte’s etching with engraving, “Venus sur les Eaux”, c1760, after Boucher

Pierre Etienne Moitte (1722–1780)

“Venus sur les Eaux” (Venus on the Waters) (aka “Venus en haar gevolg in het water” [Venus and her retinue in the water]), c1760 (1732–1780 [Rijksmuseum dates]), after François Boucher’s (1703–1770) painting, “The Triumph of Venus” (1740), in the National Museum, Stockholm (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_Venus), published in Paris by Pierre Etienne Moitte.

Etching with engraving on laid paper with a small margin around the platemark and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 53.8 x 68.5 cm; (plate) 52.2 x 67.4 cm; (image borderline) 47.4 x 65.5 cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “Peint par F. Boucher”; (centre) “VENUS SUR [Coat-of-Arms] LES EAUX/ Dedieé à Monsieur le Marquis de Jumilhac [Arms] Lieutenant General des Armées du Roy/ Capitaine Lieutenant de la Premiere Compagnie des Mousquetaires [Arms] Servant a la Garde ordinaire de la personne de Sa Majesté/ Lieutenant de Roy dans la Province de Perigord Gouverneur [Arms] de Philippeville et Chevalier de l'Ordre Militaire de S^t. Louis/ A. Paris chez Moitte Grareur a l’entrée de la rue S^t. Victor [Arms] la premiere porte cochere a gauche en entrant par la Place Maubert// Par s[o]n très humble et très obeissant/ Serviteur Sorbet Ecujer”; (right) “Gravé par P.E. Moitte”.

State ii (of ii) with the addition of lettering for publication.

LeBlanc 7 (LeBlanc 7 (Charles Le Blanc 1888, “Manuel de l'amateur d'estampes: contenant le dictionnaire des graveurs de toutes les nations”, vol. 3 Paris, Emile Bouillon, p. 34, cat. no. 7).; Nagler 33 (G.K. Nagler 1840, “Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon oder Nachrichten von dem Leben und den Werken der Maler, Bildhauer, Kupferstecher, Formschneider, Lithographen, Zeichner, Medailleure, Elfenbeinarbeiter, etc.:Meglinger–Müller”, vol. 9, Munich, E A Fleischmann, p. 354, cat. no. 33).

See also the descriptions of this print offered by the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.212559 & https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl020557796.  

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression with a small margin around the platemark and laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. There are restored tears and fractures to the edges and pale stains, nevertheless, the sheet is in a good condition for its age and size.

I am selling this huge and magnificent engraving showing Venus escorted by her usual retinue of nereids, cupids, tritons, doves and sea creatures—I’d like to call them dolphins, but I’ve never seen dolphins like these! —for the total cost of AU$487 (currently US$325.51/EUR294.52/GBP259.26 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this large masterwork of engraving, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Louis Leroy’s etching, “Une Avalure, Baie des Trépassés”, 1854

Louis Leroy (aka Louis Joseph Leroy) 1812–1885)

“Une Avalure, Baie des Trépassés”—the Baie des Trépassés, or Bay of the Dead, is a bay on Cap Sizun on the west coast of Finistère, in Brittany (France), purportedly where “dead druids were ferried from here to be buried on the island of Sein” (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baie_des_Tr%C3%A9pass%C3%A9s),1854.

Etching with dot-roulette on buff coloured chine collé on heavy wove paper, trimmed with a small margin around the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 64.8 x 50.8 cm; (image borderline) 61 x 47.2 cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (centre) “LOUIS-LEROY, A-f, 1854/ UNE AVALURE. (Baie des Trépassés.)”

State ii (of ii) with the body of a drowned woman of the first state replaced with shipwreck debris (Beraldi: “Second état: la femme noyée a été supprimée”).

Beraldi 48 (Henri Beraldi 1889, “Les Graveurs du XIX Siecle”, Paris, Librairie L. Conquet, vol. 9, p.158, cat. no. 48 [https://archive.org/details/lesgraveursdu19e09berauoft/page/158/mode/2up]).   

Interestingly, Beraldi offers the following insight regarding Louis Leroy’s large etchings: (transl.) “Louis Leroy tended to excessive dimensions, where even the most skilled etchers feel uncomfortable” and in a footnote to his discussion, Beraldi offers the following marvellous assessment of Leroy from the Goncourt brothers: (transl.) “Leroy, a tall dark man with a big voice: he is the enemy of priests, emperors, kings and romantics, and hides, under the appearance of truculence and physical ferocity, a perfectly good childhood and quite “prud'hommesque” [honourable?] ideas. (Journal des Goncourt) (p. 156 [https://archive.org/details/lesgraveursdu19e09berauoft/page/156/mode/2up]).  

See also the description of this print offered by the Louvre collections: https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl020531369.

Condition: a richly inked, strong and well-printed impression trimmed with a small margin around the image borderline and laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. There are restored tears and marks in the margins, otherwise, the sheet is in a good condition for its large size with no significant stains or foxing.

I am selling this huge masterwork of etching that is rarely seen on the art market, by the artist who famously gave the Impressionist school of artists their name in his article in “Le Charivari” (April 1874), “L’Exposition des Impressionnistes” (see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG35602), for the total cost of AU$324 (currently US$216.56/EUR195.94/GBP172.49 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in this grand-scale etching showing figures in a rocky cove with shipwreck flotsam—note that in the state before this, the body of a drowned woman featured in the foreground but is replaced here with broken timber—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Marcantonio Raimondi’s engraving, “The Presentation in the Temple”, 1510–15, after Albrecht Dürer

Marcantonio Raimondi (aka Marcantonio) (1470/82–1527/34)

“The Presentation in the Temple” (TIB title) (aka “Presentatie van Christus in Tempel”; “La Présentation du Christ au Temple”), 1510–1515, plate 11 from the series of twenty plates (including the title plate), “The Life of the Virgin”, after the woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer (aka Albrecht Duerer) (1471–1528) (see the description of Dürer’s woodcut offered by the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.33332).

This print features in one of history’s pivotal points regarding copyright, as Dürer famously printed a stark warning in the colophon for the 1511 edition of his series of woodcuts, “The Life of the Virgin”: “Beware you envious thieves of the work of invention [Laboris et inguenii] of others, keep your thoughtless hands from these works of ours. We have received a privilege from the famous Emperor of Rome, Maximilian, that no one shall dare to print these works in spurious forms, not sell such prints within the boundaries of the Empire …” (see Lisa Pon 2004, “Raphael, Dürer, and Marcantonio Raimondi: Copying and the Italian Renaissance Print”, New Haven, Yale University press, p.39). Although Dürer was rightly enraged by the copying of his prints, this print was engraved and published before the colophon warning was circulated.

Engraving on laid paper trimmed around the image borderline with a narrow margin.

Size: (sheet) 29.4 x 21.1 cm; (image borderline) 29.3 x 20.9 cm.

Inscribed in plate in the style of Albrecht Dürer’s monogram: (on tablet on column) “AD”; numbered in plate (lower centre) “II”.

Lifetime impression (based on the line quality showing no sign of wear to the printing plate).

TIB 27. 631 (Konrad Oberhuber [ed.] 1978, “The Illustrated Bartsch: The Works of Marcantonio Raimondi and of his School”, Part 2, vol. 27, New York, Abaris Books, p. 317, cat. no. 631 [406]); Bartsch XIV.406.631; Delaborde 245 (Gisèle Lambert & Mariel Oberthür 1978, Paris, p. 42, cat. no. 245).

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print: (transl.) “Presentation of Christ in the Temple, Mary kneels before the priest and offers a cage of doves” (http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.34819).

Condition: a strong, near faultless, impression, trimmed with a narrow margin around the image borderline. The sheet is in a remarkably good condition for its size and age with no tears, holes, folds, significant stains or foxing.

I am selling this rare masterwork of engraving for the total cost of AU$508 (currently US$339.55/EUR307.22/GBP270.44 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in this exceptionally fine engraving that is also an historical marking point in the change of copyright restrictions in 1511, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold 

Edgar Chahine’s etching with drypoint, “La Vallée Fertile près Monte Oliveto Maggiore”, 1906

Edgar Chahine (1874–1947)

“La Vallée Fertile près Monte Oliveto Maggiore” (“The Fertile Valley near Monte Oliveto Maggiore”—Tuscany, Italy), 1906, from a series of 50 plates, “Les Impressions d'Italie”. This impression was published in Paris by Edmond Sagot 1857–1917) in the art periodical, “La Gazette des Beaux-Arts”, 1^st Decembre,1906, between pages 504 and 505.

Etching with drypoint with pale plate tone printed in bistre coloured ink on cream laid paper with full margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 18 x 27.2 cm; (plate) 10.6 x 21.8 cm.

Signed in plate at lower left: “Edgar Chahine”.

Tabanelli 199 (M.R. Tabanelli 1977, “Edgar Chahine: Catalogue de l'Oeuvre Gravé”, Milan, Mercante di Stampe, cat. no. 199); IFF 90 (Département des Estampes 1939–, “Inventaire du Fonds Français”, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, cat. no. 90).

See also the description of this print offered by the British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1909-0701-2.

Condition: a strong (near faultless) impression with full margins. The sheet is in a near pristine condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains, foxing or signs of handling.

I am selling this very beautiful view over a valley famous for its distinctively grey soil from which the area gained its name, Crete Senesi, near the Benedictine monastery, the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore in Tuscany (please forgive me if any of the above details are incorrect), for the total cost of AU$287 (currently US$191.83/EUR173.57/GBP152.79 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this superb etching, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.