A
Small Selection of Old Master Prints
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link: Old
Master Prints 01, will allow you
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a print has been sold it will be marked
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ALBRECHT
DÜRER
Nuremberg 1471 – 1528 Nuremberg
Engraved after Dürer’s first visit to Italy The
little Fortune, so-called for the comparative size of the plate, is his earliest engraving of a classical subject and earliest rendering of a classical nude.
It
was on his first trip to Venice that Dürer developed an interest in classical proportions, though his female nudes always have a Northern particularity that diverges from the accepted classical ‘ideal’.
The
little Fortune
Hollstein 71 b/b; Bartsch
78
120 x 66 mm
Original
engraving, c.1495-96.
The plate monogrammed.
A good Meder b impression, with the plate
scratches.
Small
margins (12-13 mm all round).
Good condition.
Short supported tear (6 mm) at the sheet
edge in the right margin.
Sold
The
classical Fortune was an inconstant goddess
who bestowed her favours at random. The globe
on which she balances is indicative both of
instability and the territory over which her
sway extended.
Dürer here chose not to show
her winged, but her eyes are closed within
the convention of being blindfolded. She holds
a flower, which Panovsky interpreted as eryngium,
the aphrodisiac sea holly. Since the Renaissance,
Fortune and Venus have been frequently associated
both in literature and visual arts.
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GIOVANNI BENEDETTO CASTIGLIONE
Genoa 1609 – c1665 Mantua
Castiglione
was very open to the ideas of foreign artists.
His atmospheric and mysterious etchings show
a response to Claude and Flemish & Dutch
artists; though etching itself, as a medium,
has strong Italian affiliations and probably
had a longer continuous practice in Italy
than elsewhere in Europe. The Young Shepherd
on Horseback, one of Castiglione’s
earlier prints, was probably etched in the
1630’s during Castiglione’s first
stay in Rome from 1634 to the early 1640’s.
Young Shepherd on Horseback
Bartsch
28
188 x 250 mm
Original
etching c.1638.
The
plate signed and dated indistinctly.
A later
impression on laid paper with narrow chain
lines and an elaborate armorial watermark.
Trimmed just outside, to, or just into the
borderline. A diagonal fold line in the top
right corner.
Other minor defects.
£3500
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REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN
Leyden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam
It is only in Rembrandt’s graphic work that landscape assumes an important place.
A history and portrait painter, landscape only occupied him as a theme for his etchings for around thirteen years, from 1640 to 1653.
During this period he etched twenty-seven landscapes.
Remarkable for their spontaneity, atmosphere and sense of actuality, scholars have been able to retrace the actual routes the artist took on walks through identifying the exact locations where Rembrandt stopped and etched.
Landscape
with a Cow
Bartsch, White & Boon, Ustick 237;
Hind 240
103 x 129 mm
Original
etching, c.1650.
Usticke’s 4th state of 6, after the Watelet retouch etc.
An early 19th century impression, printed with plate tone on cream laid paper.
Short repaired tear in the lower margin.
Sold
The
only one of Rembrandt’s landscape etching
plates to survive the centuries.
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ANTHONIE WATERLOO
Lille 1610 – 1690 Utrecht
A major landscape etcher of his time. While Waterloo painted only a few pictures
of importance he produced 136 landscape etchings, mainly of wooded scenes
observed with a romantic eye. He usually published his etching in series
but without titles. The Little Bridge is from a suite of six upright landscapes.
The
Little Bridge
Bartsch 124,
Hollstein 124
ii/iii
295 x 237 mm
Original
etching.
The plate initialled.
A later impression
but before the Basan rework. On laid paper
with a countermark. Trimmed to the plate
but with a narrow plate border all round.
Both top corners made up. A small pale stain
and other minor defects.
£350
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FRANCISCO GOYA
Fuente de Todos, Aragon 1746 – 1828 Bordeaux
Goya
only turned seriously to etching, and in
particular to the tonal possibilities of
aquatint, after the illness in 1793 that
left him deaf and his mind pre-occupied with
dark fantasies. This resulted in his first
major series, the Caprichos, which he published
himself in 1799. Despite the gentle title
suggestive of the earlier 18th century rococo
capriccio etchings of Canaletto and Tiepolo,
the content of Goya’s plates showing
the follies, mores and hypocrisies of contemporary
Spanish society, led to opposition from the
Inquisition and the prints being withdrawn
from circulation.
Goya
had managed to sell very few sets. In 1803
he gave the plates and the remaining impressions
to the Court, in exchange for a life pension
for his son. They were stored at the Calcographia
of the Prado and in the second half of the
19th century, when the political situation
had changed, the Calcographia issued a succession
of small new editions from the plates.
Bellos
consejos - Pretty Teachings
A young woman being
advised by an old matron
Pl.15 of the Caprichos
Harris 51
214 x 151 mm (plate); 309 x 222
mm (sheet)
Original
etching and aquatint, c1799. Published state,
with the title and plate number in the bottom
and top margins. Probably from the small
2nd (c1855) or 3rd (1868) editions; the aquatint
still printing well and with contrasts of
tone; before the plate was bevelled for the
4th edition in 1878.
Sold
The
preparatory drawing for the print is in the
Prado.
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HENDRIK GOLTZIUS
Mühlbracht 1558 – 1616 Haarlem
Goltzius was the most important designer of chiaroscuro prints in the Netherlands
in the 16th & 17th centuries.
Hercules & Cacus, his largest woodcut, is significant in being designed from its inception as a multi-block colour woodcut, rather than having tone blocks added to an existing line woodcut. It is also the only one of Goltzius’ chiaroscuros to be dated.
The
figure of Hercules, expressing his heroic
physical strength, combines the elegance
of Goltzius’ ‘Spranger’ period with his new
Knollenstil emphasis on muscularity.
Hercules
and Cacus
Bartsch 231;
Hollstein 373;
Bialler
25 ii/iii
409 x 331 mm
Chiaroscuro
woodcut, 1588. Signed and dated in the ‘green’ block.
A later impression in the second state colour
version (black, yellow and yellow-green).
Like the Chatsworth impression, lacking the
additional letterpress inscription, added
in the second state beneath, c.1620, by the
printer ‘Blaeu’.
The sheet also trimmed to a thread margin at
the top and within the image at both sides,
made up with a facsimile strip 20 mm at the
left and 50 mm at the right edges.
Otherwise
a good impression in generally good condition.
A central horizontal drying fold and other
small defects. The top and bottom borderlines
with the usual small breaks in the block.
Part of an unidentified watermark with three
parallel curved lines.
Sold
Part
of the legendary history of the founding
of Rome, related by Livy, Virgil and Ovid,
elaborated from the original Greek legend of
Heracles ‘labour’ of finding Geryon’s cattle.
On
his return, having crossed the Tiber, Hercules
lay down to sleep. During the night Cacus,
a fire-breathing giant, son of the Roman god
Vulcan, stole some of the beasts and dragged
them into his cave, blocking the entry with
a huge boulder. Hercules managed to gain access
and after a great struggle slew Cacus and recovered
the cattle.
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