Gérard de Lairesse’s etching, “Ver” (Spring), 1675

Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711)

“Ver” (Spring), 1675, from the series “The Four Seasons”, published by Gérard de Lairesse (as inscribed on plate). Although this impression is from the first edition by the artist, the print was also published by Nicolaes Visscher II (1649–1702) and by Gerard Valck (1651/1652–1726) in “Opus Elegantissimum”.

Etching on laid paper with small margins lined with an archival support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 23.9 x 31.5 cm; (plate) 22.5 x 30.5 cm; (image borderline) 20.8 x 30.1 cm

Inscribed below the image borderline: (left) "Gerardus Lairesses pinxit"; (centre) “Ver”; (right) L Sculpcit & Excudit”

Lifetime impression; state ii (of vi) My attribution of this impression to the second state is based on the erasing of Lairesse’s publication details and the addition of the (state iii) lettering, “Per Gerardum de Lairesse inv. et sculp. et per Nicolaum Visscher edit. cum Privil. Ord. Gene. Belgii Foederati" (see the BM impression no. 1929,1112.2.36), before the addition of the (state iv) lettering, "nunc apud G.Valk". Timmers (1942) advises that there are six states.

Timmers 1942 80 II (VI) (J M Timmers 1942, “Gérard Lairesse”, Amsterdam); Roy 83 I (II); Hollstein 80; LeBlanc 286; Huber-Rost 19

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“An allegorical figure of Spring seated on clouds being presented with baskets of flowers by three attendants.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3342721&partId=1&searchText=LAIRESSE+Ver+&page=1) see also the description of the print at the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.134909

Condition: crisp lifetime impression with small margins and laid upon an archival support sheet. There are restorations in the upper and lower margins and small dots within the image. The sheet shows signs of use (i.e. there are minor marks—see small mark in the sky above the centre figure—and mellow toning).

I am selling this lifetime impression executed by the major 17^th century academic artist known as the “Dutch Poussin” (see the BM biographical notes for this artist) for the total cost of AU$251 (currently US$197.65/EUR164.37/GBP145.68 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this light filled etching after one of Gérard de Lairesse’s own paintings (as inscribed on the plate), 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

Catchphrase titles for artists are often interesting in a forgettable, superficial way. In the case of popular nicknames bestowed on Gérard de Lairesse, such as “The Dutch Poussin” or “The Dutch Raphael”, the names hint at deeply rooted issues that made the titles potent and significant. Certainly, Gérard de Lairesse’s style and choice of allegorical subjects connect him to these artistic luminaries but there is something even contentious about his linkage to the classical tradition: an undercurrent of conflict in Netherlandish art that he was perceived to be a leading figure. In short, Gérard de Lairesse was seen as the apotheosis of art based on a grand academic vision of perfect beauty against which artists like Rembrandt with their celebration of the everyday, and sometimes the ugly, side of life were at odds.

Interestingly, Rembrandt may not have experienced feeling of animosity towards Gérard de Lairesse, even after receiving such disparaging comments from his rival that his paintings “merely achieved an effect of rottenness … like liquid mud on the canvas." (see http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/16th-june-1894/23/rembra_ndt-when-the-magnificent-dream-of-painting-). After all, Rembrandt even chose to paint Gérard de Lairesse’s portrait—albeit when the great classicist was blind and whose face had become deformed from congenital syphilis.

Stefano Castellari’s etching after Herman van Swanevelt’s “St. Jerome in the Desert”, c1800

Stefano Castellari (1780–1821)

“Eremitaggio di S. Girolamo” (as inscribed on plate), c1800, copy after Herman van Swanevelt’s (c1603–55) etching, “St Jerome in the Desert”, 1650–55, from van Swanevelt’s series of four plates, “Landscapes with Penitent Saints”

Etching with engraving on wove paper trimmed along the image borderline but retaining the publication text line.

Size: (sheet, trimmed unevenly) 24 x 32.4 cm

Lettered on plate below the image borderline: (left) “Swanevelt inv.”; (centre) “Eremitaggio di S. Girolamo”; (right) Castellari in[…?]”

See two other prints by Stefano Castellari at the New York Library (Digital Collections): https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?filters%5BnamePart_mtxt_s%5D%5B%5D=Castellari%2C%20Stefano%2C%201780-1821&keywords=&layout=false

References for Herman van Swanevelt’s etching, “St Jerome in the Desert”:

TIB 2.109 (313) (Mark Carter Leach & Peter Morse [eds.] 1978, “The Illustrated Bartsch: Netherlandish Artists”, vol. 2, Abaris Books, New York, p. 313); Hollstein 14.II; Bartsch II.313.109

Condition: richly inked impression of what must be a very early state based on the crisp quality of the lines. The upper-left corner is restored and the sheet has been trimmed close to the image borderline. The back of the sheet has remnants of mounting hinges and traces of glue spots on the corners.

I am selling this etched copy after van Swanevelt’s print for the total cost of AU$115 (currently US$90.37/EUR74.97/GBP66.63 at the time of posting this listing). Unlike my usual listed prints with free shipping, the buyer will need to pay for the true cost of shipping for this print.

If you are interested in this very well executed etching that is a copy of van Swanevelt’s original 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

This print could be a "problem" for collectors as it is copy AFTER van Swanevelt’s etching, "St Jerome in the Desert”. I have decided to showcase it, nevertheless, as the print almost “sings” with sparkling light and shadow.

Like most images of St Jerome in the wilderness, van Swanevelt's composition is full of allusions to the idea of St Jerome suffering like Christ with regard to the theme, “imitatio Christi” (i.e. salvation through imitating Christ). Nevertheless, there are deviations from the more common representation of the saint. For example, St Jerome is not portrayed as is often the case with his head weighed down in the way that Christ struggled with his unsupported head on the cross. Instead, St Jerome is shown resting his head in his left hand and covering his eyes. Even the treatment of the rugged rocky terrain is slightly unusual in the sense that the theme of showing St Jerome’s cave as “materia prima” (i.e. the earth’s womb or “first mother) is sidelined to the extent that the cave is not portrayed at all—unless I have misread the shadows on the far right. 

François de Poilly I’s engraving of “St. Jerome seated in a cave”, mid-1600s

François de Poilly I (1622–1693)

“St. Jerome seated in a cave”, 1635-93, after Guido Reni (1575–1642), published by François de Poilly I with royal privilege (as inscribed on the plate).

Engraving on laid paper trimmed within the platemark and lined onto an archival support sheet.

Size: (sheet, timed unevenly) 41 x 36.8 cm

Inscribed on plate lower right of centre: “F. Poilly ex. cum privil. Regis”

(Note: there is another inscription that may be handwritten to the left of centre but it is too fine and faint to decipher)

V&A reference: Dyce Collection. “A Catalogue of the Paintings, Miniatures, Drawings, Engravings, Rings and Miscellaneous Objects Bequeathed by The Reverend Alexander Dyce”. London: South Kensington Museum: Printed by G.E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1874.

See description of this print at the V&A: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1157062/st-jerome-print-francois-de-poilly/

Condition: the impression is crisp but there are numerous restorations and stains. The sheet is laid onto a washi paper support sheet.

I am selling this large engraving executed in exceptionally fine detail from the mid-1600s for the total cost of AU$152 (currently US$119.20/EUR98.74/GBP87.98 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. Note: the print was originally glued to a support sheet of an old engraving featuring the date “1654” and I am delighted to include this fragment of an engraving with the purchase of this print.

If you are interested in purchasing this remarkable engraving filled with the attributes of St Jerome—viz. the lion which followed him after the saint removed a thorn from its paw; the “hermit’s cave” in which he lived (note that as this is a male hermit’s cave as the location is far from town whereas a female hermit’s cave is usually represented as close to town); the saint’s “cardinal clothes”; the cross above his bookstand; the skull beneath his desk; the books and his writing material—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

For a change in the daily discussions, I thought I would share a small sequence of photos showing the process that I used to restore this very beautiful print that centuries of handling and accumulation of dirt has darkened and made fragile.

My first step was to bathe the print in distilled water placed in the sun. The aim at this point was to rinse away the surface dirt and to “kill” the mould in the sun’s UV. Equally important, I wanted to soften the paper so that the old support sheet—an engraving dating back to the Siege of Smolensk in 1654 (the date is inscribed in the print)—could be removed and replaced with fresh archival paper designed to last a few millenniums into the future.

In the photos showing the roller, the old engraved support sheet is being carefully parted from Poilly’s engraving lying face down—I worked hard to ensure that both prints were preserved as both are wonderful. What came as a surprise is that I discovered a piece of grass (or an insect’s preserved leg) sandwiched between the two prints … yuck! ... This explained a mysterious stain on both prints.

After removing the support sheet I dried and absorbed away the residue glue from the back of Poilly’s engraving before laminating the print onto its fresh support sheet. Note in the final photo that Poilly’s engraving and the Siege of Smolensk are both now preserved.

Antonio Tempesta’s etching, “Ceres Ordering Erysicthon's Punishment”, 1606

Antonio Tempesta (c1555–1630)

“Ceres ad Famem Nympham in Erisichtonis poenam amandat” (aka “Ceres Ordering Erysicthon's Punishment” [TIB title]), 1606, plate 79 from the series of 150 plates (plus the title plate), “Metamorphoseon sive transformationum” (The Metamorphoses of Ovid), published by Willem Jansz. Blaeu (aka Willem Jansz; Willem Janszoon Blaeu; Willem Jones Blaeu; Willem Janssen; Guilelmo Janszoon Blaeum; Wilhelmus Janssonius) (1571–1638). (Note: The first state of the frontispiece for the series has Pieter de Jode I’s name as the publisher but this attribution is now rejected. Interestingly, Bartsch proposes that the frontispiece is by an anonymous printmaker rather than Tempesta [see BM no. X,3.194])

Etching on laid paper trimmed along the platemark.

Size: (sheet, trimmed unevenly) 10.5 x 11.9 cm

Inscribed below the image borderline: (left) “79”; (centre) “Ceres ad Famem Nympham in Erisichtonis poenam amandat.”

TIB 36.716 (151) (Sebastian Buffa & Walter L Strauss [eds.] 1983, “The Illustrated Bartsch 36: Antonio Bempesta: Italian Masters of the Sixteenth Century, Abaris Books, New York, p. 49) ;Bartsch XVII.151.716; Cicognara 4749; Brunet 695; Graesse VI(2).49; Funck 399; Henkel-Illustrierte Augsbagen von Ovid's Metamorphosen in Bibl. Warburg Vorträge 1926, p. 60

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Plate 79; Ceres in her chariot at centre, commanding a nymph to carry out Erysichthon's punishment; with Erysichthon below to right felling a tree in Ceres's grove, and with Famine seated outside her cave below to left.”

(http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1542992&partId=1&searchText=Tempesta+ceres&page=1)

See also the description at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the Rijksmuseum: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/402172; http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.183912

Condition: well-printed early impression, as shown by the crispness of the lines and signs of surface scratches still evident in the impression. The sheet is trimmed on the platemark and is in very good condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions or significant stains, but the paper has mellow toning/darkening appropriate to its age).

I am selling this small etching from 1606 by one of the most famous of the Renaissance printmakers, for the total cost of AU$165 (currently US$129.27/EUR107.57/GBP95.35 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this strong image showing in the lower left corner what the personification of famine looks like in the form of the Roman goddess, Fames, 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

For those unfamiliar with the series of mythological hijinks underpinning the “Metamorphoses of Ovid”, this scene shows the Roman goddess, Ceres, in her chariot pulled by dragons with waggly tails telling a nymph carrying an armful of grain—one of the symbolic attributes of Ceres as the goddess of agriculture—to pay a visit to the goddess of famine, Fames, shown at the lower left of this illustration. The story after this is rather dreadful as the nymph asks Fames to breathe her famine-laden breath into the king of Thessaly’s mouth as retribution for the king (Erysichthon) having chopped down one of Ceres’ sacred trees—see him in action on the lower right of the composition. As a result of Fames’ breathing on the king, the king becomes so hungry that he literally eats himself … shocking story!

What may be interesting to contemplate is whether Tempesta is successful in his illustration of what the goddess of famine should look like (according to Ovid):

“Her hair was coarse, her face sallow, her eyes sunken; her lips crusted and white; her throat scaly with scurf. Her parchment skin revealed the bowels within; beneath her hollow loins jutted her withered hips; her sagging breasts seemed hardly fastened to her ribs; her stomach only a void; her joints wasted and huge, her knees like balls, her ankles grossly swollen” (see AD Melville [trans.] 1998, “Metamorphoses”, Oxford University Press. pp. 195–197).

Adamsz. Bolswert’s etching (with engraving), “Farmhouses”, 1614

Adamsz. Bolswert (aka Boëtius Adamsz. Bolswerd) (1580–1633)

“Farmhouses”, 1614, plate 5 from the series of 20 plates, “Landscapes with Farmhouses”, after a drawing by Abraham Bloemaert (aka Abraham Bloemaart) (1564–1651) held in the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. (See the complete series in the British Museum nos. D,7.112-129 and D,7.162)

Etching with engraving on fine laid paper trimmed outside the image borderline with thread margins

Size: (sheet) 15.1 x 24.4 cm

Numbered on plate within the image borderline to the right of shading at the left corner: “5” (almost completely erased).

Roethlisberger 1993 234 (Marcel Roethlisberger & Marten Jan Bok 1993, “Abraham Bloemaert and his sons: Paintings and prints”, 2 vols, Ghent, cat. no. 234, pp. 196–7); Hollstein 342

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Plate 5: Farmhouses. Landscape with a man seen from behind in central foreground and carrying two buckets, a house with thatched roof beyond, some large jugs lying around; after Abraham Bloemaert.”

(http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3058305&partId=1&people=132004&peoA=132004-2-23&page=1)

See also the description of the print at the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.collect.84304

Condition: crisp, well-printed, museum-quality impression in pristine/faultless condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing), trimmed outside the image borderline with thread margins.

I am selling this superb impression of an exceptionally rare print, for the total cost of AU$287 (currently US$224.80/EUR186.29/GBP165.72 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this marvellously expressive mannerist landscape revealing a vision of landscape forms so soft that they seem shaped like clay, 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 farmhouses is far from an everyday way of looking at them. They are what I wish to describe as “special.”

I can envisage that a viewer could see this print by Bolswert as simply a well-executed copy of his former master’s—Abraham Bloemaert’s—drawing. From my way of looking at the linework, however, this is not the case. Bolswert’s lines have a uniquely personal, signature-like, quality to them. In short, this print is not a line-for-line copy of the original drawing based on close observation, but rather it is a translation of what Bolswert saw in Bloemaert’s drawing by the sense of touch. In short, Bolswert has reshaped this rural scene like a blind person might model the form of how each featured subject “feels” like in terms of tactile (haptic) sensory experience.

Jan Sadeler I’s engraving, “The Descendants of Lamech”, 1583

Jan Sadeler I (aka Johannes Sadeler; Johann Sadeler) 1550–1600)

“The Descendants of Lamech” (TIB title), 1583, after a lost drawing by Maarten de Vos (1532–1603), plate 9 from the series of 12 plates, “The Story of the First Men”.

Engraving on fine laid paper trimmed at (or slightly within) the platemark and lined on an archival support sheet.

Size: (sheet trimmed unevenly) 20 x 25.8 cm; (image borderline) 19 x 25.6 cm

Inscribed on plate within the image borderline: (lower left) “Ioan: Sadl: inue: et scalps:”; (centre, on stone) "GENES: IIII"; (lower centre right) “M. de vos figuravit”

Lettered on plate below the image borderline in two columns of two lines in Latin: “Excæpit Lamech ex bina coniuge ... / ... , natamque Noemam."

State i (of ii) before numbering with “9” to the left.

TIB 7001.025 S1 (Isabelle de Ramaix & Walter L Strauss (eds.) 1999, “The Illustrated Bartsch 70, Part 1 [Supplement], Johan Sadeler I”, vol. 70, Part 1, Abaris Books, p. 44); Nagler 1835–52, no. 19; Le Blanc, no. 39; Wurzbach, no. 8.9; Hollstein 1980, vol. 21, no. 25; Edquist, p. 7, no. 11a.

See also the description of this print at the British Museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1545221&partId=1&searchText=Lamech+Sadeler&page=1

Condition: crisp and well-printed lifetime (first state) impression but with restorations to areas of abrasion and with patches of pale staining. The sheet is not in superb condition. The sheet has been trimmed and laid upon a support sheet showing signs of use (marks) (verso).

I am selling this lifetime impression of a very rare but age weary print for the total cost of AU$313 (currently US$244.32/EUR203.74/GBP180.91 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this remarkably detailed and important print featuring a sequence of biblical scenes within a single composition, 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

For those unfamiliar with the biblical figure, Lamech, shown towards the centre of this image, he is the sixth-generation descendant of Cain and most interestingly the first polygamist cited in the Bible (see Genesis 4:18).

From my reading of the small vignette scenes to the right of Lamech, the dead chap in the distance has been freshly killed by Lamech and the scene in the middle-distance featuring man with a lance in his back is another that Lanech didn’t quite kill but has wounded—somewhat noticeably I should add. In the foreground, Lamech has come to tell his two wives—Adah and Zillah—about his proclivity for killing chaps: “Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man … and a young man to my hurt.” (Genesis 4: 23).