Karel Dujardin’s etching, “Landscape with Two Muleteers”, 1656

Karel Dujardin (aka Karel Du Jardin; Carel Dujardin; Carel du Jardin; Bokkebaart) (1626–1678)

“Landscape with Two Muleteers” (Les deux muletiers [Bartsch title]), 1656, plate 20.

Etching on laid paper trimmed around the platemark with a thread margin and hand-inscribed in ink verso ex-collection Naudet (fl.c1769–1810) (Naudet [Lugt 1937]) with the date 179[0?]. Frits Lugt in “Les Marques de Collections de Dessins & d’Estampes” (Fondation Custodia) offers the following information regarding this collector:

(transl.) “NAUDET (circa 1800), printmaker, established in the Louvre, Paris. […] Naudet is the printmaker who figures among the guests of the “Meal given on March 7, 1806 by the Mds d'Estampes de Paris, to their Confrère and their friend Le Clerc” (anonymous engraving of the time). He used to sign on the back the beautiful prints that passed through his hands. We see his signature accompanied by vintages varying from 1769 to 1810. He is probably from the family of Joseph Naudet, who was professor, and director of the Royal Library from 1840 to 1860 (http://www.marquesdecollections.fr/detail.cfm/marque/8618).

Size: (sheet) 14.9 x 17.9 cm; (image borderline) 14 x 17.7 cm.

State ii (of ii) with the addition of the plate number, “20” on the lower right corner.

Inscribed on plate: (upper left corner) “K. DV. IARDIN./ 1656 fe”; (lower right corner) “20”.

Hand-inscribed in brown ink verso: “Chez Naudet M[archand] & D[’]estampes au Louvre 1790[?]”.

TIB 1.204 (179) (Leonard J Slatkes [ed.] 1978, The Illustrated Bartsch: Netherlandish Artists, vol. 1, New York, Abaris Books, p. 190, cat. no. 204 [176]); Hollstein 20.II.

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Two Muleteers. Landscape with a man in central foreground and driving two mules and some goats towards the right, a tree growing slantwise from right to left in right foreground, an escarpment above a river at centre with a second muleteer and two mules heading left, mountains rise in the distance; second state with number. 1656” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Sheepshanks-855).

See also a description of the first state of this print offered by the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.38317.

Condition: a remarkably strong and near faultless impression, trimmed with a thread margin. The sheet is in a near pristine condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing, but there is a hand-written collector’s inscription in ink verso.

I am selling this superb impression with the hand-written inscription verso that I understand was once in violet ink, but has faded now to brown, testifying that this print was part of the ex-collection of the famous art collector, publisher and dealer Naudet—see biographical details offered by the British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG39925—for the total cost of AU$251 (currently US$192.86/EUR162/GBP139.56 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) 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 visually arresting composition with its diagonally leaning tree in the foreground and a distant glimpse into rural life in the mid-1600s, 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