Adriaen van Ostade’s etching “Painter in His Studio”

Adriaen van Ostade (aka Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade) (1610–85)

“Painter in His Studio” (Le peintre), c.1647 (The BM also proposes an alternate date c.1663)

Etching on laid paper trimmed to the image borderline and retaining the text lines showing the publication details and four lines of Latin.

Size: (sheet) 22.9 x 17 cm

Inscribed below the image borderline: “Pictor Apellieâ pingas licet arte tabellam, / Quae modo pictores, et modo fallit aves, / Livor edax sed enim, nisi te fortuna bearit, / Auferret ingenio praemia digna tuo. / A. v. Ostade fecit.”

(Translation by Oliver Phillips: “Though you a painter, paint a painting with Apelles’ art which now fools painters, and now the birds. Yet, gnawing envy, unless fortune bless you, will take away the prizes worthy of your talents.”)

This print is from the 1670 edition that includes the lines of verse.

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“The Painter: an artist sits at his easel before a canvas in his studio; under the stairwell are two assistants or pupils who are grinding colours; light enters the studio through a lead-paned window at left; a lute hangs on the wall and two sculptures are displayed on a shelf.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1442329&partId=1&searchText=ostade+artist&page=1)

The curator of the British Museum also offers the following information:

“A related painting is in Dredsden [sic.]. Lit.: 'Everyday life in Holland's Golden Age: The Complete Etchings of Adriaen van Ostade', ex. cat. Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam, 1998, no.33. See also A. Griffiths (ed.), 'Landmarks in Print Collecting, Connoisseurs and Donors at the British Museum since 1753', BM, 1996, cat. 29.” (ibid.)

Note: there are actually two paintings by van Ostade bearing a resemblance to this print: one in Amsterdam (1647?) and the other in Dresden dated 1663. The gap of sixteen years between these two paintings may account for the two different dates attributed the execution of this plate. From my research I understand that both paintings celebrated important achievements in van Ostade’s career: in 1647 van Ostade was appointed commissioner to the artists’ guild and in 1662 he was appointed to the position of Dean in Haarlem’s Guild of Saint Luke (see Leslie Scattone 2005, “A Portrait of the Artist, 1525–1825”, p. 132).

Hollstein 32 (Hollstein, F W H, “Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts c.1450-1700”, Amsterdam, 1949); Bartsch I.367.32 (Bartsch, Adam, "Le Peintre graveur", 21 vols, Vienna, 1803; 1978 edition, vol. 1, p. 346).

Condition: Exceptionally rare, richly inked and crisp impression trimmed to the image borderline and retaining the text lines. The sheet is in excellent condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, abrasions, stains, folds or foxing).

I am selling this very famous original etching in superb condition by the grand old master, Adriaen van Ostade, for a total cost of AU$582 (currently US$428.51/EUR402.92/GBP345.65 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in this rare opportunity to own one of history’s iconic images, 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

Most folk know this print as it is one of the great iconic images from the 17^th century resulting from having been reproduced in most art books—perhaps all?—dealing with artists working in their studios.

Many books and online sources propose that the artist portrayed in the image is in fact a self-portrait by Adriaen van Ostade. Interestingly, this may not be the case. Leslie Scattone in her essay on this etching in “A Portrait of the Artist, 1525–1825” (2005) has a very different view:

“… the print hardly seems autobiographical at all, given that van Ostade was himself a successful and prosperous artist” (p. 131).

Notwithstanding Scattone’s argument that the portrayed studio does not suggest a successful artist, my experience of artists, whether they are acclaimed or quiet hermits shunning fame, is that they seldom—with a few exceptions—choose to live in plush residences designed to impress. Consequently, I have no difficulty in believing that this artist working in his humble studio is indeed van Ostade; a man who paints the rural poor, knows very well how they live and has no problem with having his artistic reputation linked to the common man. But, of course, I may be wrong…

Cornelis Bloemaert’s engraving, “Les Enfers” (Hell), after Abraham van Diepenbeeck

Cornelis Bloemaert (1603–92) and Theodor Matham (aka Dirk Matham) (1605/1606–76) (for the background)

“Les Enfers” (Hell), c.1635–38, after Abraham van Diepenbeeck (1596–1675), published in Michel de Marolles' (1600–81) “Tableaux du temple des muses tirez du cabinet de feu Mr. Favereau.” Paris: Antoine de Sommaville, 1655.

Etching and engraving on fine laid paper with margins.

Size: (sheet) 30.7 x 21.1 cm; (plate) 28.5 x 19 cm

Lettered below image with title, “les Enfers”  (lower left), number, “53” (lower right corner) and three lines of Latin from Virgil's Aeneid: "Hinc exaudiri gemitus, et sæva sonare / Verbera, tum stridor ferri, tractæq[ue] catenæ / Virgilius 6. Æneid."

(Google translation: “Therefrom are heard groans and drives off the sound of the / blows, or the clank of iron, tractæq [ue] off / Virgil 6. Aeneid.”)

Hollstein 34-93 (after Diepenbeeck) (Theodoor Matham) (Hollstein, F W H, “Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts c.1450-1700”, Amsterdam, 1949); Hollstein 90-148; Roethlisberger 1993 CB11 (Roethlisberger, Marcel G; Röthlisberger, Marcel G, “Abraham Bloemaert and his sons: Paintings and prints”, 2 vols, Ghent, 1993)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Mythological scene in the underworld with Charon fighting off souls trying to get into his ferry in foreground, Hades and Persephone seated at right under a canopy made of flayed skin, torture scenes in middle ground; after Abraham van Diepenbeeck; illustration on page 419 from Marolles' "Temple des Muses" (Paris, Nicolas Langlois: 1655).” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3234269&partId=1&searchText=bloemaert+virgilius+6&page=1)

Condition: strong impression with margins in excellent condition—almost pristine—apart from two small stains in the right margin.

This print has been sold 

This is a rare image in that it illustrates Virgil’s vision of a turbulent Hell.

Certainly, the muscly figures in the foreground battling with Charon to board his ferry on the River Styx are hard to miss. What my eyes are captivated by, however, are the figures hung like gruesome decorations from the rocky overhang of Hell. Close examination of these limp bodies shows that they are not alone: there are fine specimens of wicked looking monsters on the upper right. Immediately below these winged demons is a skin canopy sheltering the god of Hell, Hades, with Persephone, looking particularly unattractive, by his side

In the middle distance, the arena of Hell is portrayed: the place where figures are being tortured. In this place of horror I can see that one of these figures being held by his hair while being whipped by two ferocious deodorant-free naked men each holding a handful of snakes. Nearby, a limp breasted woman is portrayed about to beat the head of a kneeling figure with club—very nasty stuff! Further back, a reclining figure is shown being pecked by a large bird, while even further into the distance can be seen a figure tired to a rotating wheel while being roasted alive. Thank goodness this vision of Hell is only an illustration.

Aegidius Sadeler’s engraving, “Cottage on piles above a canal”

Aegidius Sadeler II (aka Gillis Sadeler; Egidius Sadeler; Ægedius Sadeler) (c.1570–1629)

“Cottage on piles above a canal” (Cottage auf einem Hügel über einem Kanal), c.1610–13, from the series. “SIx Landscapes”, after a lost drawing by Roelant Savery (aka Roelandt Savry; Roelant van Saverij) (1576–1639). Isabelle de Ramaix in “The Illustrated Bartsch” vol. 72, Part 2 (Supplement), p. 36, advises that part of the series, “Six Landscapes”, may have been engraved by Isaac Major; see also Dorothy A Limouze 1990, “Aegidius Sadeler (c.1570–1629) Drawings, Prints and Art Theory”, Ph.D diss,, Princeton University, p. 196. Interestingly, Limouze notes the influence of Gillis van Coninxloo on Roelant Savery’s drawings (p. 194).

Etching and engraving on laid paper trimmed on, or within, the platemark, and lined on a conservator’s support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 22.2 x 28.5 cm

State I or III (of V) Lifetime impression. (Note: both of these states have the text shown on the lower left. In state II, the name of the publisher is shown on the lower right: “Marco Sadeler excudit,” In state IV, the text on the left is erased and substituted with “Sadeler scul.” In state V, the publisher is lettered: “Daumont ex.”)

Bartsch 7201.240 S1 (see vol. 72, Part 2, p. 39); Nagler 1835–52, no. 228; Le Blanc, nos. 204–09; Wurzbach, no. 106; Hollstein 1980, vol. 21, no. 232.

Condition: exceptionally rare (this print is not even in the British Museum collection) richly inked and crisp impression, trimmed on, or within, the platemark and lined on a conservator’s support sheet. The support sheet must have been necessary as I can see a tear at the upper centre that is no longer an issue. Beyond this addressed issue the sheet is in excellent condition (i.e. there are no holes, abrasions, stains, folds or foxing).

I am selling this superbly rich lifetime impression by Sadeler for a total cost of AU$389 (currently US$285.29/EUR269.77/GBP231.18 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this remarkable visual document of life on the canals in the Netherlands during the early 17^th century, 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

There is true art to sustaining a viewer’s interest and this scene of 17^th century rural life exemplifies one way to hold a viewer’s attention. To explain what I mean by the approach employed, I wish to compare the compositional arrangement of this image to the way in which sentences are often constructed, in terms of using commas to frame key points. For example, if one starts reading the composition from the left to the right side, the two trees in the foreground isolate and pictorially frame the first glimpse of landscape populated with rural folk attending to their labours. In my reading of this first segment, I see that the angle of the slender punting pole held by the closer figure guides my eye to the task that another figure is undertaking in the distance: carrying a piece of lumber towards a partly obscured figure in the next segment framed again by trees. 

What I find fascinating to ponder is the skill with which the artists— Roelant Savery (designer) and Aegidius Sadeler (engraver)—have manipulated my reading of this image. Not only have they broken it into visually digestible portions from the left to the right sides, but they have also created a network of barriers and partial barriers to engage my interest by compelling me to navigate my way into the distance. For me, this is a wonderful image and it illustrates very well how visual semantics—framing ideas to communicate meaning—play a role in good composition.

Auguste Rodin’s drypoint, “Antonin Proust”

Auguste Rodin (aka Pierre Auguste Rodin) (1840–1917)

“Antonin Proust”, 1884/8, published by Roger Marx in “Auguste Rodin,” opp. 190,  “Pan”, vol.III no.3, 1897, with publication details lettered lower left in the margin: “AUGUSTE RODIN, ANTONIN PROUST  ORIGINALRADIERUNG  PAN III 3.”

Drypoint on heavy cream wove paper (Japan) with large margins as published

Size: (sheet) 36.8 x 27.2 cm; (plate) 23.7 x 17.7 cm

State V (of VII)

Delteil 10.V (Delteil, Loys, “Le Peintre-Graveur Illustré (XIXe et XXe siècles)”, 31 vols, Paris, 1902); Thorson 1975 X.5 (Thorson, Victoria, “Rodin Graphics, a catalogue raisonné of drypoints and book illustrations”, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, 1975)

The British Museum offer a description of this print; see: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1346204&partId=1&searchText=rodin+proust&page=1

Condition: faultless impression with margins as publish in excellent condition—almost pristine—apart from a faint stain towards the lower right corner of the margin.

I am selling this original and very famous drypoint by Rodin for a total cost of AU$487 (currently US$359.38/EUR339.15/GBP289.01 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this genuine Rodin, 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

When I was a student I remember looking at what seemed like an endless array of portraits that history has deemed to be "masterworks." At the time, I could see that they were “well done”, but no one took the trouble to explain what made a master portrait different to a skilfully executed one. Mindful of this shortfall in information, I thought I might offer a personal evaluation of what makes this image a masterwork.

Let me begin by proposing that knowledge about perspective, anatomy and technical skills play only a small part in creating a masterwork. This may sound like a surprising suggestion, but if I were to describe how a master artist draws a chair, for instance, few masters would begin by laying down a network of perspective guidelines. Instead, a master is more likely to draw from a personal experience of sitting in a chair and draw the chair from a sense of touch (i.e. a haptic approach where the drawing instrument becomes an imaginary hand). The outcome of drawing from experience rather than by formula is that the chair drawn from the experience of sitting in one is more likely to be convincingly real. In short, drawing is not so much about technical knowledge (but it is still an element), rather it is about intuitively “feeling’ the subject into the drawn image—a bit like Michelangelo who asserted that he could “see”/”feel” the figure he was sculpting within the marble.

If I now turn to this masterwork portrait of Antonin Proust, note how the fine strokes of the burin describing Proust’s chest are not a mechanical alignment hatched lines reproducing the surface contours of his chest. Instead they are exploratory strokes where each one is laid as if Rodin was searching and metaphorically “feeling” the form of Proust’s chest.

At this point I need to point out that when Rodin executed this portrait, his approach was not to sit Proust in a fixed position and to draw what he saw as precisely as he could. Such an approach is not the way that master artists work. Rodin knew that he had to move around his subject (Proust) so that he “understood” at an intimate level the form of his sitter’s head. This acquired knowledge then guided each stroke that Rodin made.

Cornelis Bloemaert’s engraving, “The Deluge”, after Abraham van Diepenbeeck

Cornelis Bloemaert (1603–92) and Theodor Matham (aka Dirk Matham) (1605/1606–76) (for the background)

“Le Deluge”, c.1635–38, after Abraham van Diepenbeeck (1596–1675), published in Michel de Marolles' (1600–81) “Tableaux du temple des muses tirez du cabinet de feu Mr. Favereau.” Paris: Antoine de Sommaville, 1655.

Etching and engraving on fine laid paper with margins.

Size: (sheet) 22.3 x 32.5 cm; (plate) 18.4 x 27.9 cm

Inscribed within the image “A Diepenbeek figur.” (lower left)

Lettered below image with title, “le Deluge” (lower left), number, “3” (lower right corner) and three lines of Latin from Ovid's Metamorphoses: "Tela reponuntur manibus fabricata Cyclopum, / Poena placet diversa, genus mortale sub undis / Perdere. / Ouid. 1. Metam.".

(Google translation: “The bolts which are made by the hands of the Cyclops, / He preferred a different punishment, the human race under the waves / of it.”)

New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 207.II (Theodoor Matham) (Hollstein, F W H, “The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts 1450-1700”, Amsterdam, 1993); Hollstein 34-93 (after Diepenbeeck) Hollstein 90-148; Roethlisberger 1993 CB11 (Roethlisberger, Marcel G; Röthlisberger, Marcel G, “Abraham Bloemaert and his sons: Paintings and prints”, 2 vols, Ghent, 1993)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Mythological scene with Deucalion and Pyrrha seated on a bull trying to escape a flood, while others attempt to rescue themselves by hanging on to the bull or climbing in trees, Zeus with an eagle seated on clouds in top left while stopping a winged genius creating rain; after Abraham van Diepenbeeck; from an album containing sixty engravings trimmed and pasted on sheets; illustration on page 19 from Marolles' "Temple des Muses" (Paris, Nicolas Langlois: 1655).” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3235252&partId=1&searchText=Cornelis+Bloemaert+le+deluge&page=1)

Condition: strong impression with margins in excellent condition—almost pristine—apart from a closed tear in the upper margin. (The issue of this tear has been addressed with a strip of conservator’s tape [attached verso] to ensure that the tear does not progress.)

This print has been sold

The curator of the British Museum offers the following interesting background to the publication of this print that is part of a series of sixty illustrations by Cornelis Bloemaert (Le Blanc 90-148) and François de Poilly (one plate only) in Michel de Marolles' (1600–81) "Tableaux du Temple des Muses […]" (Paris, 1655):

“This series of book-illustrations is also referred to as 'Cabinet Favereau'. Jacques Favereau (1590–1638) first commissioned the Frenchman Pierre Brebiette to make the drawings depicting classical mythology but he was not entirely satisfied with the results and therefore asked the Flemish artist Abraham van Diepenbeeck as an intermediary draughtsman for most of the plates. Favereau died before the project was completed and Marolles took over the publication which was only published in 1655. Most of the drawings would have been made when Diepenbeeck was in Paris in the early 1630s and it can therefore be assumed that some of the plates (after Diepenbeeck's drawings) were already made before Favereau's death in 1638. Theodor Matham is said to have etched the landscapes and the backgrounds, although his name does not appear on the plates (as Bloemaert's). …

None of the plates are lettered with the printmaker's name but it is likely that they were all made by Cornelis Bloemaert (except one plate by Poilly showing Salmacis and Hermaphroditus) with the etched background done by Theodor Matham.”

(http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3234533&partId=1&searchText=1983,1001.12.1&page=1) 

Philips Galle’s engraving after Joannes Stradanus of 16th century bear hunting

Philips Galle (aka Philippe Galle; Philippus Gallaeus) (1537–1612)

“Bear Drive”, 1578 (or later) from the series, “Venationes Ferarum, Avium, Piscium”, after Joannes Stradanus (aka Jan van der Straet; Giovanni della Strada; Jan van der Straeten; Giovanni Statenensis; Giovanni Stradano; Johannes Stradanus) (1523–1605)

Engraving on laid paper, trimmed to the image borderline, lined a support sheet of wove paper

Size: (sheet) 20.3 x 27.8 cm

Lettered within image: “Ioes Stradanus inven. / Phls Galle excu.”

New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 426.I (Johannes Stradanus) (Hollstein, F W H, “The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts 1450-1700”, Amsterdam, 1993); New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 524.I (Philips Galle); Baroni Vannucci 1997 693.21 (Baroni Vannucci, Alessandra, “Jan van der Straet, detto Giovanni Stradano, flandrus pictor et inventor”, Milan, Jandi Sapi Editori, 1997)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Bear Drive; in the left foreground, two hunters armed with spears target the bear's head as it bites into the arm of their companion, to the right, the bear lies defeated; in the middle distance, the hunt closes in on a bear; in the background, hunstmen, some on horseback, and a pack of hounds pursue a rearing bear” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1619924&partId=1&searchText=stradanus&page=3)

Condition: marvellous rich impression trimmed to the image borderline. The sheet has darken with time in a beautifully mellow way and it has been laid down on a support sheet. Beyond the yellowing and a few minor stains (in the sense of not being very visible) the sheet it is in good condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, abrasions, folds or foxing).

I am selling this action laden hunting scene for a total cost of AU$157 (currently US$117.42/EUR109.68/GBP94.44 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this visually arresting 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

Scenes like this of bears being hunted may be upsetting for contemporary viewers, but when the image is viewed with the mindset of a 16^th century audience for which it was created the subject is no doubt riveting. I know this to be close to the truth as the original design by Joannes Stradanus (aka Jan van der Straet) was for a tapestry in the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano near Florence and the image proved so popular that it —along with a host of other hunting scenes—were copied and published as engravings to satisfy popular demand for hunting scenes. In total 111 plates of hunting scenes were engraved: initially six were published by Hieronymus Cock (1518–70) and these were later republished without the ornament borders of the tapestries by Cock’s wife; Philips Galle (1537–1612) published another forty-four plates in 1578–80 and added another sixty-one plates fifteen years later.

(See a full explanation of the Stradanus and Galle relationship by Chris Michaelides, Curator Romance Studies: http://blogs.bl.uk/european/2015/09/joannes-stradanus-and-his-hunting-scenes.html)

Early book of 13 large engravings of saints

Update: By chance I discovered that the name of the engraver of these prints is Cornelis Galle I (1576–1650)

Exceptionally rare Italian (?) 17^th century (?) loosely bound book of 13 large engravings of saints from the hand of an unidentified artist, arguably from the circle of Ludovico Mattioli (1662 –1747) (see Bartsch 1982, vol. 43, p 47: 13 [345]) and/or Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 –1755) (see Bartsch 1983, vol. 47, p. 444: 6 [302]), based solely on stylistic treatment.

Engravings on laid paper (2.5 cm chain lines) bound with twine (but the twine binding has deteriorated and the book is held together by only a thread).

Size: (leaf) 40 x 25.5 cm; (plate size with slight variations) 28.5 x 21.5 cm

Each plate is lettered with the plate number, the name of the featured saint and two lines of Latin. (There are no publication details and the name of the artist is not given. This information is no doubt on the title page which has sadly been removed.)

Condition: crisp and well-printed impressions (most likely lifetime impressions based on the quality of the prints). A single thread of the twine binding is keeping the pages intact, but I envisage that this will break at any time. All the pages are in good condition for the age of the prints (i.e. there is light dustiness, age-toning and handling marks but there are no significant stains, holes, abrasions or foxing) except for the page/plate 6 which has a horizontal tear of 4.5 cm that passes into the lettered text of the image. I could/should reinforce this tear with archival tape but I have decided to allow the next collector to choose if this is absolutely necessary. (I am reluctant to add the tape as, for me, the bright white of the archival tape would detract from the mellow beauty of the aged paper.)

I am selling this loosely bound book of 13 large etchings of saint for a total cost of AU$613 (currently US$462.24/EUR426.40/GBP367.13 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

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

This book of prints has been sold

Sadly, time—and no doubt lack of care by a previous collector—has removed the title page to this book, consequently, the name of the engraver and publication details are not available. This has left me with the problem of doing my best to find connections between the stylistic treatment of the 13 portrayed saints and artists who work in a similar manner. to establish the name of the artist who executed these marvellous prints.

Of course there are stylistic “sign-posts” all over the prints that help in this mission, but it is still difficult and the attribution that I made earlier may well be far off-target.

For example, all the saints are shown set against a grey background created by the effect of long and unbroken horizontal lines. Although many artists use such horizontal strokes for backgrounds ranging from 15^th century printmakers like Marcantonio Raimondi (c.1480 – c.1534) through to the 18^th century and later artists like Francisco Goya (1746 – 1828) this visual device must be seen in relation to other stylistic devices, such as the style of the saints haloes and the manner of rendering forms in terms of light and shade.