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The Home Page Selection

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CORNELIS VISSCHER
Haarlem 1629 – 1658 Amsterdam

Visscher died young, but in the decade he was active he etched over two hundred plates.

He entered the Haarlem Guild of painters as a master in 1653 and a few years later moved to Amsterdam.

The Large Cat
Hollstein 42 ii/ii
144 x 185 mm
Original engraving, c1657 (a preparatory drawing, lost since its sale at the end of the 19th century, was dated 1657).
The plate signed.
Second (final) state, with the publisher Claes Janz Visscher’s ‘address’.
Trimmed in the margins.
Supported short tear at the foot, old tape verso at the top.

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Ex Albert van Loock (Lugt 3751)

Visscher’s engraving is one of the first to feature a cat apparently as a subject in its own right, but at a period when cats were kept to catch vermin, rather than as domestic pets, the cat ignoring the presence of the mouse behind it probably has an emblematic significance, perhaps referencing the Biblical verse Proverbs XIX, 15

Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.

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WINIFRED AUSTEN R.E.
Ramsgate 1876 – 1964 Orford

Austen studied oil and watercolour painting at the London School of Arts & Crafts under the wild animal painter Cuthbert Edmund Swan, as well as at visits to London Zoo.

She was a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society from 1903. Austen had first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1899. In 1902 she was elected to the Society of Women Artists and in 1907 to the R.E., only having taken up etching in 1906.

Following her move to Suffolk she was a member of the Ipswich Society of Artists from 1924 to 1964. A much praised artist, particularly for her etchings, Austen exhibited widely.

Rabbits
176 x 265 mm
Original drypoint, c1930’s.
An unsigned proof on thick cream wove paper.

£150

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EDWIN EDWARDS
Framlingham, Suffolk 1823 – 1879

Edwards retired early from his legal career and devoted himself to art and music. He took up watercolour painting in 1860.

At classes he met Matthew White Ridley and through him, Whistler, Fantin-Latour and Legros. ‘The Society of Three’ friends made regular visits to the Edwards’ house at Sunbury.

At Christmas time, 1860-61, on a visit, Legros taught Edwards to etch. He was immediately captivated by the medium and bought his own press. In August 1861 Whistler and Haden went to Sunbury to visit Fantin who was staying with the Edwards. They spent a day in open air etching. Edwards worked two plates which included ‘portraits’ of Fantin, Fantin on St George’s Hill , and Between the Poplars, Sunbury. Other days out resulted in further etchings in which Fantin appears.

Fantin wrote to his family describing his stay with the Edwards “in this house, where I am so comfortable, working, dining, sleeping, music, everything is charming…” They became close friends and Ruth Edwards acted as Fantin’s agent in this country.

Fantin at St George’s Hill
119 x 164 mm
Original etching, 1861, the plate signed with the monogram.
Entitled and signed in pencil.
Printed in brown-black on ivory japan with ‘laid’ lines.

£500

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PETER HALM
Mainz 1854 – 1923 Munich

Halm initially trained for a year or so as an architect at Darmstadt Technical University before moving to Munich in 1875 to study art at the Academy, where Johann Leonhard Raab taught him copper engraving. In 1901 he would be appointed Professor of Engraving at Munich Academy, having taught there since 1896.

In 1883 Halm had moved to Berlin, at the suggestion of his friend and fellow etcher Karl Stauffer-Bern, who had moved to the city. In Berlin he was commissioned by Wilhelm von Bode, Director of the Berlin State Museums, to engrave a series of portrait studies after the old masters. He did at least three plates after Jan van Eyck, masterpieces of tone and texture created with the finest of etched lines.

Canon Joris van der Paele
220 x 180 mm
Etching, 1883-85, after Jan van Eyck.
Signed in pencil.
On cream wove. (Together with a 1923 German newspaper cutting with Halm’s obituary.)

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A detail from van Eyck’s painting The Virgin and Child with Canon Joris van der Paele (and saints Donation and George), in which van der Paele (c1370-1443) is portrayed, as the donor.

Having been a scribe in the papal chancery, van der Paele was appointed to the canonry of the church of St Donation in Bruges in 1410. When his health declined in the 1430’s he founded a chapel in the church and commissioned a painting for it from van Eyck. The painting was completed in 1436.

When he died in 1443 van de Paele was buried in his chapel. The painting today is in the Groeningemuseum in Bruges. Van de Paele is the earliest known patron in early Netherlandish art to be portrayed with a pair of spectacles.

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JOHN REGINALD BRUNSDON R.E.
Cheltenham 1933 – 2014 Ipswich

Brunsdon studied at Cheltenham College of Art under Stanley Dent, before doing his National Service, after which, from 1955-58, he attended the Royal College of Art Printmaking department, where Julian Trevelyan was Head of Etching.

While a student, to supplement his income, Brunsdon printed etching plates for other artists. On graduation he taught part-time at St Alban’s School of Art, initially portrait painting, before he established their department of printmaking.

He exhibited widely, having his first one-man show in 1961 at Zwemmer. In 1977 Brunsdon retired from St Alban’s to devote himself full-time to etching, settling in Stradbroke in Suffolk. He was elected to the R.E. in 1995.

Glaciated Valley
225 x 301 mm
Original colour etching and aquatint.
Artist’s proof edition, signed in pencil, entitled and annotated A.P. 15/15 (The formal edition was 150).
On stout cream wove paper.

£250

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