Jonas Umbach’s etching, “Resting Shepherd Playing on a Horn”, c.1690

Jonas Umbach (1624–93)

“Resting Shepherd Playing on a Horn”, c.1690, published by Erben Jeremias Wolff (aka Johann Balthasar Probst) and later by the heirs of Jeremias Wolff (Note: the British Museum attribute the date of this print to 1645–1700 and the Rijksmuseum propose the date, 1634–93. My attribution is based on Jeremias Wolff’s active dates as a publisher in Augsburg, fl.1686–1724, and that Umbach died in 1693).

Etching on fine laid paper with trimmed along the platemark.

Size: (sheet) 14.3 x 11 cm

Inscribed in the plate at lower left: “C.P.S.C.M. Haered Ier. Wolffij exc.”

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“A shepherd playing a pipe; seated in profile to left; landscape background. Etching” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1504202&partId=1&searchText=Umbach&page=1)

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print:

“A shepherd, resting on the ground in a landscape, playing on a big horn.” (Een herder, rustend op de grond in een landschap, spelend op een grote hoorn.) (http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.collect.31983)

Nagler 149 (G K Nagler 1835, “Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon”, 22 vols, Munich)

Condition: richly inked impression in excellent condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing) trimmed along or close to the platemark. There are remnants of mounting (verso).

I am selling this rare and (judging by the crispness of the impression) early/lifetime impression for AU$224 (currently US$177.59/EUR154.09/GBP136.26 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this remarkable 17th century print by an artist famed for his small etchings and for his skill in biting his printing plates only once in acid, 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

In my five earlier posts featuring Umbach’s etchings I leaned the discussions more towards technical issues underpinning the prints than describing with the age in which the prints were made. Mindful that I have avoided this topic up to now, I thought I might offer a few personal thoughts about the age of the German Baroque in which Umbach’s work is usually consigned.

At first glance, this print showing a resting shepherd making music may not seem like it would fit well with the lively spirit of the Baroque period style, but it does. For instance, the subject itself is all about transcendence beyond the everyday world to a musical dimension filled with the graphically expressed sounds played by the young man. Going further, the curving arch of the tree on the right creates a swirling rhythm that leads through the similarly curved torso of the shepherd to be released upwards following the tree in the distant centre of the composition into the sky. For me, this strong wave-like rhythm marks a transition from the temporal world occupied by the youth to the transcendent world of the ether. In short, what I wish to suggest is that this print is underpinned with the Baroque notion of taking a viewer from the ordinary world of everyday concerns to the extraordinary world of sound in bold spiralling spirit-lifting movement.

Jonas Umbach’s etching, “Neptune carried across the sea by a group of sea gods”

Jonas Umbach (1624–93)

“Neptune carried across the sea by a group of sea gods”, c.1690, published by Jeremias Wolff (1663–1724), (Note: the British Museum attribute the date of this print to 1645-1700; the Rijksmuseum propose the date, 1634–90. My attribution is based on the Jeremias Wolff’s active dates as a publisher in Augsburg, fl.1686–1724).

Etching on fine laid paper with margins and watermark (partial)

Size: (sheet) 10.9 x 14.1 cm; (plate) 8 x 11.8 cm

Signed in the plate at upper right: “Jonas Umbach f.”; numbered below the signature: “150.”; inscribed indistinctly at lower left with the address of Johann Balthasar Probst (1673–1748, an heir) and at lower right with publication details of Jeremias Wolff (1663– 1724, the publisher).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Neptune carried across the sea by a group of sea gods.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1505158&partId=1&searchText=neptune&people=104741&page=1)

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print:

“Neptune sitting on a shell, followed by Tritons and sea gods.” (Neptunus, zittend in een schelp, gevolgd door tritons en zeegoden.) (http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.421206  )

Nagler 121

Condition: marvellous impression in near faultless condition. There are remnants of mounting, a collector’s stamp and pencil notes (verso).

I am selling this rare original etching by Jonas Umbach for AU$224 (currently US$171.24/EUR160.85GBP137.11 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this remarkable 17th century print by an artist famed for his small etchings and for his skill in biting his printing plates only once in acid, 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

In my previous posts featuring Umbach’s etchings I made the point that this artist’s approach to printing was remarkable because he famously only etched his plates a single time in acid. This may suggest that he was very relaxed and carefree about the crafting of his prints. After all, most of his fellow etchers went to a great deal of trouble to ensure that their plates were bitten in acid multiple times so that each print had a full complement of line qualities from rich blacks, arising from deep biting of the plate, to the faintest lines, arising from very shallow biting.

Close examination of this print, however, reveals that it was not executed by the hand of a lazy artist indifferent to achieving subtlety of tonal nuance. On the contrary, there is great subtlety exhibited in the rendering of light and shade. For example, the torso of the triton in the foreground at left, blowing a conch, is exceptionally finely handled with sensitive shaping of contour marks and careful tonal adjustments to address even the phenomenon of how reflected light from the sea illuminates the figure’s raised arm.

From my way of looking at this small and delicately drawn image, Umbach uses the single strength of line to discipline his vision when drawing. By this I mean that each mark has to be tailored to its specific role without any way to disguise poor drawing. In short, Umbach’s approach is very honest and only “works” if the artist has technical skill, training and insight.

Jonas Umbach’s etching, “The Drunken Silenus Carried by Satyrs”

Jonas Umbach (1624–93)

“The Drunken Silenus Carried by Satyrs”, c.1660

Etching on fine laid paper with margins and watermark (partial)

Size: (sheet) 11.3 x 15.7 cm; (plate) 8 x 12.2 cm

Signed in reverse below upper margin at left: “Jonas Umbach f.”

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“The drunken Silenus carried by satyrs; to right; another satyr carrying a large vase.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1505128&partId=1&searchText=umbach+Silenus&page=1)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers the following description of this print:

“Three satyrs carrying the drunken Silenus, preceded by a putto carrying grapes; behind them a satyr carrying a large vessel, a putto, and a bare-breasted woman” (http://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/399687)

Nagler 128

Condition: marvellous impression in near faultless condition. There is a collector’s stamp and pencil notes (verso).

I am selling this rare original etching by Jonas Umbach for AU$224 (currently US$168.24/EUR157.76/GBP136.93 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this remarkable 17th century print by an artist famed for his small etchings and for his skill in biting his printing plates only once in acid, 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

This image of the drunken Silenus—the wine-god Dionysus’ teacher and companion—is far from unique. Even before Umbach executed it, the essential pictorial ingredients had already been formalised by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Anthony van Dyck (1599 –1641) and, to a lesser extent, Jusepe de Ribera (1591 –1652). The earlier representations of this mythological figure invariably show Silenus as a fat, bald, thick-lipped, squat-nosed, inebriated old man, supported by a band of satyrs, putti and stray goddesses.

What makes this particular scene special are the changes that Umbach made to the traditional arrangement of the figures. Let me explain…

In Umbach’s print the band of figures move to the right rather than to the left. Of course, when Umbach originally drew the design onto the plate the figures would have been moving to the left as is customary, but when the plate was printed the image is in reversed—as is graphically illustrated by Umbach’s mirrored signature at the top-left corner of the print. If I were to be asked what difference does this have on the projected meaning of the image I would use the analogy of how old movies were once edited: if the ending sequence was to show a happy outcome, the train or galloping horse heads off into the distance towards the left; whereas if the ending sequence expresses apprehension about an unknown future the train or horse heads off into the distance towards the right.

Even the arrangement of lighting is reversed, in that the direction of the light shown in Umbach’s etching is from the top-front-right rather than the traditional top-front-left. Again, if I were asked what difference does this make, I would use the analogy of how we perceive the craters on the moon: if the craters are lit from the top-front-left then the craters look like craters (i.e. concave dents on the moon’s surface), but if they are lit from the opposite direction the craters appear to be rounded mounds. In short, the figures portrayed in Umbach’s scene present the mind with a conflict in how to read their forms.

Jonas Umbach’s etching, “David Kneeling” c.1650/60

Jonas Umbach (1624–93)

“David Kneeling”, c.1650/60

Etching on fine laid paper trimmed to the platemark, old mounted on laid paper, blind stamped by an unknown early collector (Lugt 2690) and lined on a conservator’s sheet.

Size: (with old mount) 27.7 x 20.6 cm; (sheet) 13.9 x 11.4 cm

Inscribed at the lower right corner: “Jonas Vmbach f.[ecit]”

Lifetime impression of the only state

Haas 10; Nagler 10 (Georg Kaspar Nagler,1835 “Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon”, 22 vols, Munich [see vol.19, 1849]); Pelicer-Acezat B8

Condition: lined on a conservator's support sheet and in near faultless condition (for the age of the print).

I am selling this rare original etching by Jonas Umbach for AU$224 (currently US$167.39/EUR167.55/GBP132.79 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this remarkable 17th century print—a lifetime impression—from an artist famed for his small etchings and for his skill in biting his printing plates only once in acid, 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

Sadly, Jonas Umbach's prints have managed to escape serious study by academics. Unlike most of the other major printmakers of the 17^th century who have monographs written about them and their works have been itemised in catalogue raisonnés by Bartsch and Hollstein, Umbach's contribution to printmaking has not had close academic attention.

Rather than passively lament this shortfall, I thought that I would apply the usual advice given to would-be beginning artists wishing to be famous to see why this curious anomaly might have occurred.

The first piece of advice that is commonly given to novice artists is that they should be consistent in creating images. And, importantly, to be consistent in creating images that exhibit a personal style and vision (i.e. their unique way of looking at/perceiving a subject).

With regard to Umbach, he exemplifies what should have been a successful artist who achieved this first goal. He was a very industrious printmaker creating around 250 plates and another 350 designs for prints (see Stijn Alsteens & Freyda Spira, 2012 “Durer and Beyond” Met. Museum of Art [cat.], p. 216). Moreover, his prints are consistent in their small size and they are also consistent in exhibiting only one strength of line. In fact, Umbach was remarkable in his stylistic approach of using a single strength of line as most printmakers in the 17^th century used varying line strengths. To achieve this single strength, Umbach bit his printing plates only once in acid. This technique was rare as most printmakers bit their plates with acid multiple times to achieve variation in line quality (i.e a variation from strong, dark and emphatic lines to fine, light and subtle lines). In short, a print by Umbach is easy to identify.

The second piece of advice for budding artists seeking fame is to be visible in the public eye.

Regarding Umbach’s public visibility, he was well-known and highly respected—arguably, a “pillar of society.” There is little question about this as Umbach was an official painter at the court of the Bishop of Augsburg.

The third piece of advice should have been the simplest to achieve, given his success with the previous two guidelines, but this is where Umbach failed to secure his position in history: an artist is famous when his achievements are verified by arts writers. Clearly, Umbach had the chance to be celebrated by distinguished writers but chose to take a quieter path. If this is true, then I admire this man greatly as passionate artist, but not one seeking fame.

Blindstamp of an unidentified collector (Lugt 2690)