Simon Frisius, “Village in a Mountain Landscape”, 1614, after Matthijs Bril

Simon Frisius (aka Simon Wynhoutsz Frisius; Simon de Vries) (c.1580–1628)

“Village in a Mountain Landscape”, 1614, a lifetime impression from the first state (of three) before numbering (as plate 6?) from the series of twenty-seven plates, “Topographia Variarum Regionum” (Various topographical views), after the design by Matthijs Bril (aka Mattheus Bril; Mattheus Brill; Mattheus Brillo) (c.1550–1583) and (following the description by the Rijksmuseum) Josse van Liere (aka Joos van Lier; Jodocus Lireus) (?–1583), published in The Hague by Hendrik Hondius I (1573–1650).

Etching on fine laid paper trimmed around the image borderline with restorations and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (unevenly trimmed sheet) 10.6 x 15.5 cm; (image borderline) 9.7 x 15.5 cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (centre) “Mathias bril Inventor Hhondius excudit.”

State i (of iii) before numbering

New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 143.I.

The Rijksmuseum and the British Museum offer descriptions of this print: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200193124; https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1947-0319-7-15.

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression unevenly trimmed. The lower right edge has been replenished, otherwise there are with no significant stains. The sheet is laid onto a support of millennium quality washi paper providing wide margins.

I selling this exceptionally rare first state impression of this marvellous jewel of a small etching for AU$322 (equivalent to approximately US$202.80, EUR 193.61, or GBP 160.15 at the time of listing) and includes Express Mail Service (EMS) postage and handling to any worldwide destination. Please note that any import duties or taxes levied by the destination country are the responsibility of the buyer and are not included in the purchase price. Payment is requested in Australian dollars (AU$322).

If you are interested in purchasing this superb and seldom seen old-master print on the art market, 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

Simon Frisius’ etching, “Forest landscape with ruins hidden behind trees”, 1613/14

Simon Frisius (aka Simon Wynhoutsz Frisius; Simon de Vries) (c.1580–1628)

“Forest landscape with ruin hidden behind trees” (aka “Boslandschap met ruïne verborgen achter bomen”), 1613/14, after Matthijs Bril (c.1550–83), published by Hendrick Hondius I (1573–1650) in the series of 27 plates (including the title plate), “Topographia Variarum Regionum” (Various topographical views) (1613/14).

The curator of the BM advises that the copy of the publication “Topographia Variarum Regionum” held by the museum consists of “a series of twenty-seven etchings by Frisius after Matthijs Bril (New Hollstein 123-150) of small landscapes, which was published in 1614 by Hendrick Hondius. One print after Joos van Lier has been added to the series. The prints are inlaid into double sheets and the series is bound in an album with a gold tooled vellum binding that seems to be seventeenth-century” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1947-0319-7).

See the list of prints in this publication at the Rijksmuseum:

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.453679; see also the title plate for the series at archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/mma_title_to_topographia_variarum_regionum_390778.

Etching on fine laid paper trimmed slightly irregularly along the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 10.7 x 15 cm.

Lettered below the image borderline: “Mabias bril inventor. Henricus hondius excudit.”
State i (of ii)

Hollstein 1-25 (after Matthijs Bril); New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 142.I (Simon Frisius); Hollstein 64-91 (under Simon Frisius).

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print:

(Transl.) “Two men are standing along a forest edge. They look at a ruin, half right, hidden behind the trees”

(http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.454729).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“View of a huge gnarled tree set before some ruins, figures in the foreground, after Matthijs Bril. 1613/1614”

(https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1947-0319-7-16).

Condition: well-printed impression with some areas showing wear to the printing plate, trimmed irregularly along the image borderline and laid onto a support sheet of millennium quality washi paper. There is a fracture in the upper left edge otherwise sheet is in excellent condition for its considerable age.

I am selling this small but remarkable etching executed by an artist famous for his amazing technical virtuosity in mimicking the attributes of engraved lines in his etchings—he even published manual for calligraphers executed entirely by etching but with the swelling and tapered lines of engraving—for the total cost of AU$262 (currently US$181.96/EUR160.42/GBP144.98 at the time of posting this) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this superb and seldom seen old-master print on the art market, 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

Raphael Sadeler I’s engraving (with etching), “Landscape with a Rowboat”, c1598

Raphael Sadeler I (1560/61–1628/32)

“Landscape with a Rowboat” (TIB title) or “Landscape with the Emblem of the Donkey Laden with Delicacies” (Rijksmuseum title), 1598–99, from the series, “Emblems in a Landscape”, after a lost drawing by Matthias Bril the younger (1550–1583), published as an illustration in Giovanni Andrea Alciato’s (aka Alciati) (1492–1550) “Emblemata” (1599), in Venice, with privilege from Pope Clemens VIII (1536–1605).

Etching and engraving on fine laid paper with small margins and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 23 x 29.2 cm; (plate) 21.4 x 27.8 cm; (image borderline) 20.2 x 27.5 cm

Inscribed on plate within the image borderline at lower edge: (centre) “Matth: Bril inuen: Raph: Sadeler scal. Cum priu. Pontif.”

Lettered on plate below the image borderline:  “Septitius populous …/ …// …/ …// …/ …// …/ …pauper alit.”

Lifetime impression (based on the crisp lines showing no sign of wear) of the only state

TIB 2006, 7101.198 (Isabelle de Ramaix [ed.] 2006, ‘The Illustrated Bartsch: Raphael Sadeler I”, vol. 71, Part 1 [Supplement], Abaris Books, p. 283); Nagler 1835–52, no. 141; Le Blanc, no. 124; Wurzbach, no. 128; Hollstein 1980, vol. 21, no. 216; Sénéchal 1987, no. 57; Edquist, p. 311, no 39a

The Rijksmuseum offers a description of this print:

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.168899

Condition: a superb, crisp, richly inked and well-printed impression with small margins (approx. 1 cm), backed on a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. There is a minor printer’s crease (i.e. a crease occurring during the printing process) at left otherwise the print is in a near pristine condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, abrasions, significant stains or foxing).

I am selling this superb and exceedingly rare lifetime impression that not even the British Museum online repository appears to hold for the total cost of AU$330 (currently US$240.54/EUR210.59/GBP85.68 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing important print, 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

At first glance this very beautiful landscape executed in the late 1500s may seem to be as conceptually unchallenging as are the activities of the people portrayed in it (viz. a traveller resting while his goods-laden donkey munches on thistles; men in a rowboat revealing their awkward efforts to traverse a stream). Of course, after careful study of what is shown, images from this time were seldom simple in terms of the meanings that they project. Certainly, this image meets this description as what is depicted is loaded with symbolism. Note for instance, the enormous nesting stork—symbolic of maternal vigilance, good fortune and a long life—crowning the top of the tower on the left while the stork's mates fly overhead. More critically important in this scene, however, is the moral imperative that would have been clear to 16^th century viewers regarding the chap with his donkey as the Rijksmuseum explains: “This is the representation of an emblem in which the moral of the story shows that rich people always find a reason to complain despite their wealth.”

(http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.168899)

Simon Frisius’ etching, “Landscape with a Windmill”, 1614, after Matthijs Bril

Simon Frisius (aka Simon Wynhoutsz Frisius; Simon de Vries) (c.1580–1628)

“Landscape with a Windmill”, 1614, after Matthijs Bril (c.1550–83), published by Hendrick Hondius I (1573–1650) in “Topographia Variarum Regionum” (Various topographical views) (1613/14).  

See this publication at the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.453679    

Note: the Rijksmuseum seems to have made an error by describing this print as after the design of Josse van Liere (1500/20–1583) (see RP-P-1885-A-8900). Van Liere’s name is not mentioned in the BM’s description of the print (see 1947,0319.7.19) and only Bril’s name is lettered in the publication details on the plate. Nevertheless, Van Liere did design at least one other print in the series.

Etching on fine paper (presumably laid paper as this is a first state impression, but the chainlines are not evident—perhaps an Oriental paper as was sometimes employed by Rembrandt?) trimmed irregularly at or within the image borderline and lined with a support sheet.

Lettered on plate below the image borderline: “'Mathias bril. Inventor. Hhondius excudit.”

Size: (sheet) 10 x 15.5 cm

State i (of ii) before the addition of the plate number signifying the second state (see the second state impression held by the Rijksmuseum: item no. RP-P-1885-A-8900).

Hollstein 1-25 (after Matthijs Bril); New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 149.I (Simon Frisius); Hollstein 64-91 (under Simon Frisius)

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print:

“Hilly landscape with a windmill. In the foreground a man with two packaged donkeys.” (http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.113202)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“View of a windmill and figures farming, after Matthijs Bril.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3052313&partId=1&searchText=windmill&people=103915&page=1)

The curator of the BM advises that the publication “’Topographia Variarum Regionum’ consists of “a series of twenty-seven etchings by Frisius after Matthijs Bril (New Hollstein 123-150) of small landscapes, which was published in 1614 by Hendrick Hondius. One print after Joos van Lier has been added to the series. The prints are inlaid into double sheets and the series is bound in an album with a gold tooled vellum binding that seems to be seventeenth-century.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3051221&partId=1&searchText=1947,0319.7.&page=1)

Condition: crisp and well-printed lifetime/first state impression, trimmed irregularly at, or slightly within, the image borderline and backed with a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. The upper-left corner has been restored as has a small section of the cloud, otherwise the sheet is in excellent condition.

I am selling this small but remarkable etching for the total cost of AU$242 (currently US$183.33/EUR150.68/GBP131.36 at the time of posting this) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this seldom seen marvellous old-master print, 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

Frisius’ technical achievements are well documented, such as his skill in emulating the effect of engraving using only the etched lines in his copy manuals for student calligraphers (see Clifford S Ackley [1981] in “Printmaking in the Age of Rembrandt”, p. 48). From a personal standpoint, however, what I find engaging in looking at Frisius’ landscape prints—and this particular image is a perfect example—is the artist’s skill in creating very subjective personal experiences of landscape rather than objective representations.

For example, I see Frisius’ treatment of the clouds as wildly expressive to the extent that the clouds seem moulded into menacing forms. Note also the artist’s focus on angled landforms, such as the edge mounds of the road leading from the foreground and the silhouette edges of the undulating terrain. To my eyes these angled forms project a feeling of unease as if the angled lines were an analogue of a troubled mind set against, and complemented by, the horizontal and vertical lines of the windmill’s sails.