Title page for Boerner catalog - C.G. Boerner

Title page
for Boerner catalog
C.G. Boerner
Düsseldorf – New York

Albrecht Dürer
1471 – Nuremberg – 1528
1. Die Sonne der Gerechtigkeit (Sol iustitiae) – The Sun of Righteousness ca. 1499–1500
engraving on laid paper; 106 x 77 mm (4 1 /8 x 3 inches)
Bartsch 79; Meder 73 a (of d); Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 23
provenance
Walter Francis, 5th Duke of Buccleuch, London and Dalkeith, Scotland (Lugt 402)
Paul Davidsohn, Berlin (Lugt 654);
his sale, C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, sale 129, May 3–8, 1920, lot 1491, described as: “Abdruck von größter
Schönheit, mit Rändchen. Aus Sammlung Buccleugh.”
C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, Neue Lagerliste 105, 1995, no. 7
private collection
A fine impression with thread margins all round.
According to Erwin Panofsky (Albrecht Dürer, Princeton 1943, vol. 1, pp. 78 f.), Dürer did not intend this
print simply as an allegorical representation of Justice. Instead, he chose to illustrate the early Christian
concept of Christ as the “Sun of Righteousness,” depicting Christ as sun god and universal judge presiding
over the Last Judgment. This combination derives from Petrus Berchorius’s Repertorium Morale, published
by Dürer’s godfather Anton Koberger in 1489 and 1499. The entry under “sol” in this dictionary mentions
Christus in iudicio (Christ as judge) together with the sun god. The former’s attributes are the scale and the
sword, those of the latter the double halo and the face made of flames. The lion represents Leo, the sign of
the zodiac for the month of July when the sun is at its most powerful. According to Berchorius, the justice
of the universal judge on Judgment Day will be as powerful as that of the sun in July.
An early fifteenth-century capital in the Doge’s Palace in Venice has been referred to as a model for Dürer’s
composition. Rainer Schoch has recently pointed out the similarity of the Dürer image to the title-page of
a Viennese calendar for 1495 depicting the planet Mars next to the sun god who is enthroned above a lion.
However, Dürer’s composition is far more ambitious than either of these possible sources.
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Albrecht Dürer
1471 – Nuremberg – 1528
2. Adam und Eva – Adam and Eve 1504
engraving; 248 x 191 mm (9 3 /4 x 7 1 /2 inches)
Bartsch 1, Meder state IIa (of IIId); Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 39
watermark
bull’s head (Meder 62)
provenance
Frederick Keppel & Co., New York (their code in pencil in reversed letters L / V / C>)
Albert W. Scholle, New York (Lugt 2923a)
Kennedy Galleries, New York (their code in pencil a45732)
private collection, USA
A superb impression, before the crack in the bark of the tree under Adam’s left arm. Trimmed on the borderline;
a horizontal central fold visible mainly on the verso, otherwise in very good condition.
Adam and Eve, a print created at the height of Dürer’s artistic and intellectual maturity, represents the culmination
of his studies of human form that began to preoccupy him from the mid-1490s. Adam and Eve
are shown frontally and rather statically in the richly detailed landscape; Dürer is evidently less concerned
here with the dramatic narrative of the biblical story than with the representation of ideal human figure
types based on classical notions of proportion. Indeed, the statuesque and almost marmoreal aspect of the
figures further reflects their sculptural sources: the Apollo Belvedere and the Venus de’ Medici.
The existence of three distinct finished states of this print, in addition to two separate working proofs, illustrates
the degree of experimentation and care with which the artist addressed the formal and technical
problems of the composition. The uncharacteristically lengthy signature that hangs from the Tree of Life
and reads “Albrecht Durer of Nuremberg made this” is further evidence of the extent to which the artist
saw this print as a showpiece of his artistic virtuosity.
Panofsky interprets the iconography of Dürer’s Adam and Eve as representing an allegorical program based
on the ancient doctrine of the four humors. Dürer’s Paradise is full of creatures signifying the individual
humors, bodily substances thought to control health and temperament: the elk represents melancholy; the
rabbit sanguine sensuality; the ox phlegmatic sluggishness; and the cat choleric cruelty.
However, the enduring power of this iconic image lies less in its ambitious Christian-humanist content,
but rather in what Panofsky famously describes as “the splendor of a technique which does equal justice to
the warm glow of human skin, to the chilly slipperiness of a snake, to the metallic undulations of locks and
tresses, to the smooth, shaggy, downy or bristly quality of animals’ coats, and to the twilight of a primeval
forest.” (Albrecht Dürer, Princeton 1943, vol. 1, p. 84).
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Albrecht Dürer
1471 – Nuremberg – 1528
3. Maria mit der Sternenkrone – Virgin on the Crescent with a Starry Crown 1508
engraving; 116 x 74 mm (4 9 /16 x 2 15 /16 inches)
Bartsch 31; Meder 32 state IIa (of IId); Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 62
watermark
bull’s head with flower (Meder 62)
provenance
Karl Eduard von Liphart, Dorpat, Bonn, and Florence (Lugt 1687);
his sale, C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, sale 22, December 5 ff., 1876, lot 421, described as: “Vorzüglicher Druck;”
sold to Gutekunst
Gilhofer & Ranschburg, Lucerne
private collection, acquired in March 1928
thence by descent
exhibition
B.L.D. Ihle/J.C. Ebbinge Wubben, Prentkunst van Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer, Israhel van Meckenem. Uit
eene particuliere verzameling, exhibition catalogue, Museum Boijmans, Rotterdam, 1955, p. 27, no. 47
A very fine impression.
In this print Dürer revisits the subject of the Virgin on a crescent that he had depicted in one of his most
delicate pre-1500 engravings (Meder 29). His subsequent technical development allowed him to create a
sparkling brilliance of light and shade that can best be appreciated in such early impressions as this one. In
1508 Dürer was busy with a variety of painterly projects; his graphic production was largely put on hold—
only two prints were added to the Engraved Passion set this year and no woodcut bears this date. Small
images of the Virgin, on the other hand, were part of his visual repertoire and his sale stock. It might have
been the wear of the earlier plate that led him to create a new and somewhat more complex interpretation
of this standard theme of Christian devotion. That fact that we know of at least three copies of Dürer’s
composition before the middle of the century proves the popularity of this subject even at the dawn of the
Reformation era.
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Lucas Cranach the Elder
ca. 1472 Kronach – Weimar 1553
4. Die Predigt Johannes des Täufers – The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist 1516
woodcut on laid paper; 338 x 233 mm (13 1 /4 x 9 1 /8 inches)
Bartsch 60; Dodgson 119; Geisberg/Strauss 601; Hollstein 85; Koepplin/Falk 420
watermark
wheel surmounted by a stalk with five flowers
provenance
Gian-Carlo Rossi, Rome (Lugt 2212);
his sale, H.G. Gutekunst, Stuttgart, March 17 ff., 1886, lot 349, described as: “Hauptblatt in sehr schönem
altem Abdruck, selten.”
Kornfeld & Klipstein, Berne, sale 117, June 8, 1966, lot 76, described as: “Ausgezeichneter Druck, mit voll
sichtbarer Einfassungslinie, in tadelloser Papiererhaltung … Selten, das Blatt ist in der letzten Zeit kaum
vorgekommen.”
C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, Neue Lagerliste 45, 1967, no. 13
William H. Schab, Inc., New York, where acquired in 1993 by
private collection
An exceptionally sharp and early impression; apart from two small diagonal printer’s creases at lower left, in
excellent and untreated condition.
Early impressions of this, as of all woodcuts by Cranach, are exceptionally rare—and trade, for the most
part, darkness for sharpness, especially compared to the technical perfection of the best impressions of
Dürer’s woodcuts. Unlike the Nuremberg master, Cranach, the salaried court artist, never needed to reissue
his prints for income. As a result, only few of them survive, with later editions often printed not before
the second half of the sixteenth or even the early seventeenth century. We were only able to trace seven
other impressions (Berlin, Dresden, New York, Weimar, and Vienna as well as two in private collections in
Germany and the United States). The watermark found on this impression reappears in a superb and early
impression of Cranach’s The Rest on the Flight into Egypt with Dancing Angels (Bartsch 4) at the National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. While this woodcut is not dated in the block, it is believed to have been
made around 1515, confirming that this impression was pulled at the time the print was made.
Cranach’s woodcut of The Sermon of Saint John holds a unique position within his graphic oeuvre. The artist’s
first, highly productive phase of printmaking in Wittenberg had ended around 1510–12 and Cranach
did not give much attention to prints again until the beginning of the Reformation movement in the
1520s when he became one of the chief designers of reformed as well as anti-papal imagery. The present
composition, however, not only stands out within his artistic chronology but also for its technical accomplishment.
The density of Cranach’s drawing required a highly accomplished cutter (or Formschneider) who
could successfully translate the design into the intricate carving of the block that makes this print exceptional
even within the rich corpus of the German woodcut in the early sixteenth century.
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Hans Baldung Grien
ca. 1484 Schwäbisch-Gmünd – Strassbourg 1545
5. Kämpfende Hengste inmitten einer Gruppe von Wildpferden im Walde –
Wild Horses Fighting 1534
woodcut on laid paper; 214 x 320 mm (8 3 /8 x 12 5 /8 inches)
Bartsch 56; Geisberg/Strauss 123; Hollstein 238; cat. Karlsruhe 78; Mende 77;
Marrow/Shestack 83
watermark
small coat of arms with three fleurs-de-lis surmounted by flower, with pendant letter c (cf. Briquet 1815:
Strassbourg and Basel, 1520–21)
provenance
a sixteenth- or seventeenth-century Swiss collection (Lugt 969a)
A superb impression; the two lower corners skillfully repaired; trimmed on the borderline on three sides;
thread margin below.
Early impressions of this (and many other prints) by Baldung virtually never appear on the market. The
watermark found on this sheet is contemporary and is mentioned in the Karlsruhe catalogue in an early
impression of one of Baldung’s pendant prints to this one, Stallion Approaching a Mare, of the same year
(Bartsch 57).
In 1534 Baldung designed a total of three woodcuts depicting groups of wild horses in a forest (the third
one is Stallion Attempting a Mare, Bartsch 58), clearly meant as a series and probably “representing the successive
stages of the horses’ mating behavior.” While not being overly moralistic, there cannot be any doubt
that these prints “refer, ultimately, to the human condition … Such an explicit portrayal of animal sexuality
might surprise us in the works of most other sixteenth-century German artists. In Baldung’s oeuvre,
however, physical passion—especially in its sinister aspect—is a central theme … In [the series] Wild Horses
in a Wood Baldung created a group of unique and unforgettable images of the sexual drive itself” (Jay A.
Levenson in Marrow/Shestack, pp. 264–266).
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Adriaen van Ostade
1610 – Haarlem – 1685
6. Das Fest unter der Laube – The Dance under the Trellis ca. 1652
etching on laid paper; 129 x 176 mm (5 1 /16 x 6 15 /16 inches)
Bartsch 47, Davidsohn second state (of six), Godefroy and Hollstein third state (of seven)
watermark
crowned shield with fleur-de-lis (Godefroy 9)
provenance
Princes of Waldburg-Wolfegg, Wolfegg (Lugt 2542)
S. William Pelletier, Athens, Georgia (not in Lugt), acquired in 1998
A fine impression, printing with subtle tone; in pristine condition with ca. 2-mm margins all round.
A rare print (Godefroy rates it RR). There are only two impressions known of the first state in Paris (in the
collections of the Petit Palais and the Louvre) and no impression of the second state could be traced by
Godefroy.
The Dance under the Trellis, dating from about 1652, shows a peasant festival, a scene of rustic merrymaking
that was a common theme in Netherlandish printmaking of this period. The perspective of the crowd of
figures receding obliquely into the background accentuates the scene in and around the central arbor. The
similarities of many motifs here, including the trellis and the musician’s instruments (a straight flute and a
drum), to Pieter van der Borch’s Peasant Holiday of 1559 (Hollstein 467) have been repeatedly noted by
scholars. Ostade’s etching does not incorporate the kind of moralizing subscript that was part of van der
Borch’s image and, indeed, from 1647 his prints seem to extol the humble virtues of peasant life rather
than condemn its debauchery. However, in this print a decidely negative moral view of the proceedings
is suggested by the hind quarters of the foraging pig, presented oddly close to the picture plane at lower
right, and, not least, by the defecting man behind it.
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Adriaen van Ostade
1610 – Haarlem – 1685
7. Das Fest unter dem Baum – The Fair ca. 1660
etching on laid paper; 124 x 226 mm (4 7 /8 x 8 7 /8 inches)
Bartsch 48, Davidsohn, Godefroy, and Hollstein second state (of four)
provenance
Dr. Z. Bruck (not in Lugt)
Eugène Victor Rouir, Marcinelle (Lugt 2156a)
Carlo de Poortere, Courtrai (Lugt 3467)
Christie’s, London, June 27, 1996, lot 218, sold for GBP 17,250 to
Jiles Boon (not stamped)
A superb impression, with small margins all round; apart from a tiny, unnoticeably repaired hole in the sky,
in pristine condition; with thread margins all round.
A great rarity (Godefroy rates it RR) and the earliest possible state to be available on the market (there is
only one impression of the first state recorded in the British Museum).
In The Fair, as in The Dance under the Trellis, Ostade draws on motifs prevalent in Northern European genre
scenes since the sixteenth century. A fairly specific iconographic source is Pieter van der Borch’s Peasant
Holiday of 1559 (Hollstein 467) with its moralizing subscript. The artist’s jaundiced view of the peasant
festivities indicated in the The Dance is also evident here. The crippled beggar in the left middle ground
and the figure under the smaller tree at the center of the image, apparently a quack selling remedies, are
intended as a negative commentary on the moral status of the assembled figures. In his The Quacksalver of
1648 (Bartsch 43) and again in The Hunchbacked Fiddler of 1654 (Bartsch 44), Ostade deploys a child with
toy (in these prints it is a hoop) as a snide commentary on the activities of the adults; the children playing
with a hobby horse in the central foreground of this print seem to play a similar role.
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Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
1606 Leiden – Amsterdam 1669
8. Die Verkündigung an die Hirten – The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds 1634
etching, burin, and drypoint on laid paper; 262 x 220 mm (10 1 /4 x 8 5 /8 inches)
Bartsch 44, White/Boon third (final) state; Hind 120
watermark
arms of Württemberg (Ash/Fletcher B’.a; Hinterding B’.a.a and B’.a.b)
provenance
Adam Gottlieb Thiermann, Berlin (Lugt 2434)
Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen, Berlin (Lugt 1606, with their duplicate stamp Lugt 2398)
Frederik Ferdinand Hansen, Copenhagen (Lugt 2813);
his sale, C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, sale 70, May 2–4, 1901, lot 396
Siegfried Barden, Hamburg (Lugt 218)
Gilhofer & Ranschburg, Lucerne
private collection, acquired in January 1926;
thence by descent
A very good impression, printing with strong contrasts and only the slightest signs of wear. The paper
evidence proves that the impression must have been pulled around 1634–36. With thread margins, trimmed
on the platemark in places.
The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, Rembrandt’s first etched nocturne, is one of the most ambitious
compositions of the first part of his career and shows the influence of the “dark manner” prints of Hendrik
Goudt, Jan van de Velde, and Willem Akersloot. In this, one of his most successful etchings in the
Baroque style, the sense of the terror of the shepherds and animals reeling and fleeing at the apparition of
the angel is reinforced by the disproportionately small size of the figures next to the abundant foliage of
the landscape. A sense of almost cinematic melodrama is further established by the rich tonal contrasts the
artist achieved through a combined use of etching, drypoint, and engraving, effects that were inevitably
to be significant for his later oeuvre. While most of the image was completed in the second state, in the
third state Rembrandt added shading to the upper branches of the dying tree in the center as well as to the
figure and ground directly below it, to the two furthest cows on the right, and to the wings and drapery
of the angel, thus emphasizing the brilliance of the light in the sky. Nonetheless, the print must be seen in
impressions like the present example for the complex spatial relationships to be properly appreciated. The
background with the river and bridge soon deteriorated and, once this happened, the plate lost all depth
and became flat and dull.
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Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
1606 Leiden – Amsterdam 1669
9. Der Engel verlässt die Familie des Tobias – The Angel Departing from the Family of Tobias
18
1641
etching and drypoint on laid paper; 105 x 156 mm (4 1 /8 x 6 1 /8 inches)
Bartsch 43, White/Boon second state (of four); Hind 185
watermark
Basilisk (Ash/Fletcher A’.a; Hinterding A’.a.a and A’.a.b)
provenance
Gilhofer & Ranschburg, Lucerne
private collection, acquired in August 1924
thence by descent
exhibition
Delft 1952
A fine impression, with good contrasts and burr on the patches of drypoint work; with thread margins all
round.
This scene from the book of Tobit (chapter 12) shows an event soon after Tobias’s homecoming with his
new wife Sara and a travelling companion. Tobias’s little dog, seen at the center of the main figure group,
has rushed ahead to alert the blind Tobit to his son’s imminent arrival. Rembrandt’s earlier pen drawing of
Tobias Healing his Father’s Blindness in Cleveland (Benesch 547) shows Tobias restoring his father’s sight with
the magic fish gall procured on the instruction of the mysterious companion during the journey. Tobit
and his son thank the man for his help by offering him half the riches Tobias has brought with him (at the
far right we see an open trunk brimming with treasure as well as a donkey driver leaning back against his
animal, a reference to the recent journey of the newlyweds and to the goods that Sara’s father Raguel has
given them). At his point the man reveals that he is the angel Raphael sent by god both to remove a curse
on Sara that killed her first seven husbands on the wedding night and to cure Tobit of his blindness. Raphael
then levitates to the heavens through swirling clouds in a shaft of light, leaving in his wake a lasting
impression of the soles of his solidly human-looking feet.
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Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
1606 Leiden – Amsterdam 1669
10. Porträt des Kunsthändlers Clement de Jonghe – Clement de Jonghe, Printseller 1651
etching, drypoint, and burin on laid paper; 210 x 165 mm (8 1 /4 x 6 1 /2 inches)
Bartsch 272, White/Boon first state (of six); Hind 251
watermark
countermark (to Paschal lamb) letters rc (Ash/Fletcher a; Hinterding a.a)
A fine impression of the rare first state, printing with delicate tone, thread margins all round.
The print is notable for the informality of the sitter’s pose. He sits, presumably as he arrived, in his hat,
cloak, and gloves and casually leans to the right of the chair which stands at the exact center of the image.
The fluid, open style of the etching has been compared by Ger Luijten to the wide brushstrokes with
which Rembrandt depicted his friend Jan Six in his painted portrait three years later. The dreamy expression
of the sitter in this first state of six is assisted by the transparent hatching (by the second state it
has already been significantly altered by the shadow cast over the face by the broad-brimmed hat and by
drypoint accents to some of the features). Luijten discusses recent controversies surrounding the identity
of the sitter but ultimately sees no reason to doubt the traditional association with Clement de Jonghe,
noting that “the etching was linked to De Jonghe … while Rembrandt was still alive.” This is evidenced
by an inscription dated 1668 by the Parisian print publisher and dealer Pierre Mariette on the verso of an
impression: Clement de Jonghe marchand de tailles douces a Amsterdam (all quotes from Ger Luijten’s entry in
Erik Hinterding/Ger Luijten/Martin Royalton Kisch, Rembrandt the Printmaker, exhibition catalogue Amsterdam/London,
2000–2001, pp. 272–277, cat. no. 66).
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James Barry
1741 Water Lane (Cork, Ireland) – London 1806
11. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 1778
etching and aquatint in brown ink on laid paper, 455 x 367 mm (17 7 /8 x 14 7 /16 inches)
Pressly 14 first state (of six)
“The massive etchings of James Barry, in their attempt to apply the monumental scale and handling of
Piranesi to heroic figure subjects, have no parallel in English printmaking. He had no patience for the
polite small talk of the etcher’s art, and the primitive strength of his prints did not endear them to collectors
who desired more finish. They have been unjustly neglected in print literature, existing as they do
in a hinterland of their own” (Richard T. Godfrey, Printmaking in Britain. A General History from its Beginnings
to the Present Day, New York 1978, p. 64). It would hardly be possible to improve on the late Richard
Godfrey’s succinct characterization of Barry’s prints. He further described the artist as “an adventurous
early exponent of aquatint” (ibid.), and it is in this role that Barry is given pride of place in Christiane
Wiebel’s impressive survey of the technique (Aquatinta oder “Die Kunst mit dem Pinsel in Kupfer zu stechen.”
Das druckgraphische Verfahren von seinen Anfängen bis zu Goya, exhibition catalogue, Kunstsammlungen Veste
Coburg, Munich/Berlin 2007, pp. 212–219).
When Barry first turned to printmaking in 1776 he had already established a reputation as a history
painter and his work had been regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was closely associated with
a group of England’s radical politicians, most notable among them his fellow Irishman Edmund Burke,
the extreme republican Richard Price, and Price’s friend Joseph Priestly. Another politician who did not
approve of King George III’s American policy was William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham. Pitt died on May 11,
1778, after collapsing in the House of Lords where he was about to speak against the Duke of Richmond’s
advocacy of American independence. While Pitt supported the expansion of American liberties, he did not
approve of a possible fragmentation of the British Empire.
In September 1778 Barry designed this large aquatint in commemoration of the late elder statesman. Unsympathetic
to Pitt’s opposition to the Duke of Richmond, Barry chose to focus on Pitt’s highly successful
years as secretary of state from 1757 to 1761 during which he had organized a stunning victory over the
French in the Seven Years War. Barry saw him “as a patriot of inflexible honesty, imperious in his conduct
and high-minded in his views. Because of differences with George III and his proud refusal to compromise
in the give and take of the political arena, Pitt seldom held high offices after George III’s accession to the
throne, but he still commanded power and devotion. His very liabilities made him even more popular with
the nation, and Barry, not surprisingly, saw the ‘Great Commoner’ as a reincarnation of inflexible antique
virtue and accordingly adapted his portrait to resemble a classical bust. With the point of her spear, Britannia
inscribes on the pyramid erected to Pitt’s eternal fame a lengthy tribute to his greatness” (Pressly, p. 82).
In the second state the plate was thoroughly reworked with a burin. This reissue of the print dates to the
early 1790s. At this point, Barry also decided to scratch out the reference made in the original text to
the king’s dismissal of Pitt as secretary of state in 1761, “probably not because of any change of heart but
because he decided he should be more discrete in his comments about the sovereign” (William L. Pressly,
James Barry. The Artist as Hero, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1983, p. 78).
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Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
1746 Fuendetodos – Bordeaux 1828
12. Bien te se está – It serves you right ca. 1808–14
etching with aquatint and touches of burin on laid paper; 142 x 207 mm (5 5 /8 x 8 1 /8 inches)
Harris 126 state I.3 (of III.7)
provenance
Infante Don Sebastian de Borbón y Braganza
Georges Provôt, Paris;
his sale, Hôtel Drouot, April 10, 1935, lot 37
private collection, Switzerland
Working proof for plate 6 of the Desastres, with the earlier number 26 in the lower left corner. Harris lists
one impression of his state I.1 (Berlin) and one of state I.2 (Boston). Of the present state I.3, six impressions
are known, including this one.
Goya’s Desastres were conceived in three phases. One group depicts scenes from the famine that raged in
Madrid in the winter of 1811–12 as a result of the French occupation. Another group was created between
1820 and 1823, a late addition to the set and mainly consisting of more allegorical scenes. Our print
belongs to the earliest and largest group of prints, etched between 1808 and 1814. These images present
the most direct reflection of the effects and cruelties of the war with France. Commentators have linked
this composition to the battle of Bailén on July 18–20, 1808, where the French army, under General Pierre
Comte Dupont de l’Etang, suffered its first serious defeat against the Spanish under General Francisco
Javier Castaños.
The print is offered together with an impression from the first edition, published by the Real Academia de
Nobles Artes de San Fernando in Madrid in 1863 (Harris 126.III.1).
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Carl August Richter
1770 Wachau near Dresden – Dresden 1848
13. Klosterfriedhof auf dem Oybin – The Cemetery of the Monastery on the Oybin Hill
(after Adrian Zingg) 1812
outline etching with aquatint and brown wash on wove paper laid down on board; 316 x 446 mm
(12 7 /16 x 17 9 /16 inches)
Weisheit-Possél, pp. 290–298, fig. 112 and color illustration p. 415, plate 3
Adrian Zingg (1734 St. Gallen – Leipzig 1816) had drawn the cemetery close to the ruins of the monastery
on the Oybin Hill south of Zittau in 1795. The drawing is now in the Dresden print room (Weisheit-
Possél, fig. 109). He added the scene of a funeral to the detailed depiction of the Gothic ruins. The somber
atmosphere has always been recognized for its proto-Romantic allusions. The reproduction of Zingg’s
drawing in this etching and its dissemination in such hand-colored impressions as this one contributed
to its popularity among the Romantics. As a result, the Dresden Romantics Caspar David Friedrich, Carl
Gustav Carus, and Adrian Ludwig Richter all drew and painted numerous views of this ur-Romantic setting.
The etching was executed in Zingg’s studio by Carl August Richter (Ludwig’s father). His monogram C.
A. Rich and the date 1812 can be seen on one of the crosses in the left foreground. The use of monogram
and date is unique among similar outline etchings made in Zingg’s workshop, as are the traces of aquatint
complementing the hand-applied wash (clearly visible in an impression that remained void of any additional
wash; see our catalogue Goethe, Boerner, and the Artists of their Time, 1999, pp. 188f., no. 65 with color
ill.).
This composition must be counted among the most important of the reproductive prints originating in
Zingg’s studio.
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Johann Adam Klein
1792 Nuremberg – Munich 1875
14. Der Landschaftsmaler auf der Reise – The Landscape Painter on his Travels 1814
etching on wove paper; 138 x 190 mm (5 7 /16 x 7 1 /2 inches)
Jahn 131 second (final) state
provenance
Johann Nepomuk Seiler, Munich (Lugt 3976)
thence by descent
A fine impression on a beautifully preserved sheet with deckled edges.
Johann Adam Klein was the most successful etcher in Germany during the early nineteenth century. He
was apprenticed at the age of thirteen to the engraver Ambroisus Gabler and by 1811, before he had turned
twenty, his first set of prints had been published by the Nuremberg dealer Frauenholz. Klein worked for
periods in Vienna and was in Rome between 1819 and 1821, turning to watercolors and then oil painting
in addition to printmaking. In 1839 he moved to Munich. Klein made a remarkable 366 prints, mostly
genre scenes, between 1805 and 1862, during which his style hardly evolved; however, his work remained
popular until his death at eighty-three.
The subject of the travelling artist appears several times in Klein’s oeuvre, the most famous example being
his depiction of four artist friends during a trip through the Salzkammergut in 1818 (Jahn 234). Our print
shows fellow Nuremberg landscape artist Johann Jakob Kirchner (1796 – Nuremberg – 1837) whom Klein
had already portrayed the previous year in another etching (Jahn 115).
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Camille Pissarro
1830 St. Thomas – Éragny-sur-Epte 1903
15. Effet de pluie – Rain Effect 1879
etching and aquatint on laid paper; 160 x 213 mm (6 1 /4 x 8 3 /8 inches)
signed in pencil lower right and
inscribed 3 e état – n o 3, titled Effet de pluie, and signed in pencil below
Delteil 24 sixth (final) state
A very fine impression, printed with rich plate tone in brownish-black ink on cream-colored antique
paper.
Inspired by Degas and in anticipation of the new print journal Le Jour et la nuit, Pissarro took up printmaking
with new enthusiasm in 1879. Like Degas and Cassatt, he experimented widely in a range of printmaking
techiques. The first two states of Effet de pluie are executed solely in aquatint, hardly showing more
than shadowy, murky shapes (see an impression of the first state from the Petiet collection in our catalogue
Neue Lagerliste 123, 2007, no. 37). He used the sort of liquid aquatint ground that Bracquemond had
encouraged Degas to try, fully avoiding any use of drypoint or etching as a guide. Pissarro did not begin
to articulate the composition with delicate drypoint lines before the third state; by the final state, etching
and vernis mou (soft-ground etching), a metal brush and emery paper have all been employed in creating
the image, converting the inchoate shapes of the first proofs into a haystack, trees, two peasants, and a field.
He added the oblique lines indicating rain only in the fifth state, and in the sixth state added the white rain
lines against the dark aquatint of the peasants.
Effet de pluie represents a high point of Impressionist printmaking. At the same time it is a culmination
of Pissarro’s collaboration with Degas in creating various new effects through inventive techniques. Only
eight to ten proofs are known of the sixth state, and about the same number in total of the prior states
(there are also around fourteen posthumous impressions).
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31

Félix Buhot
1847 Valogne – Paris 1898
16. Une Jetée en Angleterre – A Pier in England 1879
drypoint, roulette, aquatint, spitbite, soft-ground etching with sandpaper and etching; 343 x 202 mm (11
11 /16 x 7 15 /16 inches)
the first state on Arches laid paper, with the artist’s red monogram stamp (Lugt 977) at lower center; the
second state on heavy wove paper, with the artist’s red monogram stamp at lower center and the drystamp
of the Paris publisher Edmond-Honoré Sagot (Lugt 2254); the fifth state on thin wove paper, annotated
and signed in pencil below; the cancelled state on laid c h wittmann paper
Bourcard/Goodfriend 132 first, second, and fifth states (of eight) plus an impression from the cancelled
plate; Fisher/Baxter, nos. 62 a, b, and d
The print dates from Buhot’s second trip to England in 1879 and depicts one of the landing piers in
Ramsgate, north of Dover. Starting from sketches made en plein air, Buhot first etched Une Débarquement en
Angleterre (Landing in England, Bourcard 130). He then reversed the composition for the present print of
which we are offering here three successive states as well as an impression of the cancelled plate after the
eighth state.
The first state is executed mostly in drypoint with some roulette work, and lays out the basic design. In the
second state, Buhot thoroughly reworked the plate, employing a multitude of techniques such as aquatint,
soft-ground etching, spitbite, and etching as well as roughening areas with sandpaper. A comparison of the
second and fifth states is intriguing and shows the artist reducing a considerable amount of detail in the
margins as well as in the sky. Buhot’s pencil annotation of the fifth state makes explicit reference to these
changes: État gris sans le grain dans le ciel.
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Félix Bracquemond
1833 – Paris – 1914
17. Le Vieux Coq – The Old Rooster 1882
etching on Japan paper; 346 x 270 mm
Béraldi 222 first state (of five)
provenance
Dr. Heinrich Stinnes, Cologne (Lugt 1376a)
Henri M. Petiet, Paris (cf. Lugt 2021a)
Bracquemond exhibited The Old Rooster at the Salon of 1882, and a small reproduction of the image can
be found in the salon’s illustrated catalogue. In its final versions (states four and five) the plate was published
in an edition of 200 by the London dealership of Messrs. Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell and accompanied
by a poem that celebrates “all the dignity and pomp of [the old rooster’s] mature vigor and serene
self-sufficiency.” The characterization is that of Frank Weitenkampf, who, in his wonderful appreciation of
Bracquemond, further describes this etching as follows: “He japonized this magnificent fowl in a purely
decorative spirit, without the psychological element.” The plate was famous “because most strongly characteristic”
(all quotes from Weitenkampf, Félix Bracquemond: An Etcher of Birds, in: Fitzroy Carrington, Prints
and their Makers. Essays on Engravers and Etchers Old and Modern, New York 1912, pp. 220–227, here p. 226),
and Béraldi had already called it une des pièces capitals of the artist’s oeuvre.
A splendid impression of the rare first state. According to Beraldi, only eight impressions were pulled from
the plate in this state. The later states show significantly more work: the foreground and the rye field in the
background have been filled in and signature and date have been added.
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James Ensor
1860 – Ostende – 1949
18. Insectes singuliers – Peculiar Insects 1888
etching on heavy wove paper; 118 x 160 mm (4 5 /8 x 6 1 /4 inches)
inscribed on the verso (by the artist?) in pen and ink: Insectes Singuliers – pointe sèche 1888
Delteil 46; Croquez 46; Elesh and Tavernier 46 third state (of five)
A fine impression, printing with subtle tone and strong burr; in this state a new signature in small letters
has been added to the upper left corner of the composition.
This enigmatic image, an anthropomorphic declaration of love, shows a beetle with the features of Ensor
himself and a dragonfly with the face of Mariette Hannon, the young wife of Ensor’s friend Ernest Rousseau
(cf. his portrait of 1887, Tavernier 11), with whom Ensor fell in love. He had met the family during
his first visit to Brussels in 1877. The artist’s platonic affections for Mariette were celebrated in several of
his works. This one was inspired by lines in Heinrich Heine’s poem Die Launen der Verliebten: Der Käfer saß
auf dem Zaun, betrübt; / Er hat sich in eine Fliege verliebt. (A beetle sits on a hedge, sad and pensive; / He has
fallen in love with a fly.) The fly first rebuts him but is nevertheless flattered by the beetle’s overtures. The
fly proudly grooms itself so that schon flirren heran die blauen Libellen, / Und huldigen mir als Ehrenmamsellen
(already the blue dragonflies come whizzing along / and hail me as the damsel of honor). Ensor creates an
intriguing symbiosis of Heine’s motifs, most significantly by ennobling Mariette herself as a dragonfly.
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literature
Nancy Ash/Shelly Fletcher, Watermarks in Rembrandt’s Prints, Washington, D.C. 1998
Adam von Bartsch, Le Peintre graveur, 21 vols., Vienna 1803–1821. The Illustrated Bartsch, New York 1978 ff.
Henri Béraldi, Les Graveurs du dix-neuvième siècle, 12 vols., Paris 1885–1892
Gustave Bourcard/James Goodfriend, Felix Buhot. Catalogue descriptif de son œuvre gravé with additions and
revisions, New York 1979
Charles-Moïse Briquet, Les Filigranes. Dictionnaire historique des marques du papier dès leur apparition vers 1282
jusqu’en 1600, 4 vols., Leipzig 1923
catalogue Karlsruhe: Hans Baldung Grien, exhibition catalogue, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, 1959
Albert Croquez, L’Œuvre gravé de James Ensor, Paris 1947
Loÿs-Henri Delteil, Le peintre-graveur illustré, 31 vols., Paris 1906–1930
Paul Davidsohn, Adriaen van Ostade 1610–1685. Verzeichnis seiner Original-Radierungen, ed. Eduard
Trautscholdt, Leipzig 1922
Campbell Dodgson, Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts Preserved in the Department of Prints and
Drawings in the British Museum, 2 vols., London 1903–1911
James Elesh, James Ensor. The Complete Graphic Work, New York 1982 (= The Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 141)
Jay McKean Fisher/Colles Baxter, Félix Buhot. Peintre-graveur. Prints, Drawings, and Paintings, exhibition
catalogue, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1983
Max Geisberg/Walter L. Strauss, The German Single-Leaf Woodcut: 1500–1550, 4 vols., New York 1974
Louis Godefroy, L’Œuvre gravé de Adriaen van Ostade, Paris 1930
Tomás Harris, Goya. Engravings and lithographs, 2 vols., Oxford 1964
Arthur M. Hind, A Catalogue of Rembrandt’s Etchings, Chronologically Arranged and Completely Illustrated, 2
vols., London 1924
Erik Hinterding, Rembrandt as an Etcher, vol. 1: The Practice of Production and Distribution, vol. 2: Catalogue of
Watermarks and Appendices (Text), vol 3: Catalogue of Watermarks (Illustrations), Ouderkerk aan den IJssel 2006
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450–1700,
Amsterdam 1949 ff.
The New Hollstein. Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450–1700, Rotterdam 1993 ff.
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Hollstein, German Engravings, Etchings, and Woodcuts ca. 1400–1700, Amsterdam
1954 ff.
The New Hollstein. German Engravings, Etchings, and Woodcuts ca. 1400–1700, Rotterdam 1996 ff.
C. Jahn, Das Werk von Johann Adam Klein, Munich 1863
Dieter Koepplin/Tilman Falk, Lukas Cranach. Gemälde – Zeichnungen – Druckgraphik, exhibition catalogue,
Kunstmuseum Basel, 2 vols., Basel/Stuttgart 1974–1976
Frits Lugt, Les Marques de collections de dessins & d’estampes, Amsterdam 1921. Supplément, The Hague 1956
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James H. Marrow/Alan Shestack, Hans Baldung Grien. Prints and Drawings, exhibition catalogue, National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./Yale University Art Museum, New Haven, 1981
Joseph Meder, Dürer-Katalog, Vienna 1932
Matthias Mende, Hans Baldung Grien. Das graphische Werk. Vollständiger Bildkatalog der Einzelholzschnitte,
Buchillustrationen und Kupferstiche, Unterschneidheim 1978
William L. Pressly, The Life and Art of James Barry, New Haven/London 1981
Rainer Schoch, Matthias Mende, and Anna Scherbaum, Albrecht Dürer. Das druckgraphische Werk, 3 vols.,
Munich 2001–2004
Auguste Tavernier, James Ensor. Catalogue illustré de ses gravures, Brussels 1973
Sabine Weisheit-Possél, Adrian Zingg (1734–1816). Landschaftsgraphik zwischen Aufklärung und Romantik,
Münster 2010 (= Villigst Perspektiven. Dissertationsreihe des Evangelischen Studienwerks e. V. Villigst, vol. 12)
Christopher White/Karel G. Boon, Rembrandt’s Etchings. An Illustrated Critical Catalogue, 2 vols., Amsterdam/
London/New York 1969 (= Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engraving and Woodcuts. Ca. 1450–1700,
vols. 18–19)
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artist index
Baldung Grien, Hans ............................................................................................................................. 5
Barry, James ......................................................................................................................................... 11
Bracquemond, Félix ............................................................................................................................. 17
Buhot, Félix ......................................................................................................................................... 16
Cranach the Elder, Lucas ........................................................................................................................ 4
Dürer, Albrecht ............................................................................................................................... 1, 2, 3
Ensor, James ......................................................................................................................................... 18
Goya, Francisco José de ........................................................................................................................ 12
Klein, Johann Adam ............................................................................................................................. 14
Ostade, Adriaen van ........................................................................................................................... 6, 7
Pissarro, Camille .................................................................................................................................. 15
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn ................................................................................................... 8, 9, 10
Richter, Carl August ............................................................................................................................ 13
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