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The bridge over the waterfall.

Object | Part of Art collection

item details

NameThe bridge over the waterfall.
ProductionWenceslaus Hollar; etcher; 1648; Flanders
Jacques d'Arthois; artist
Classificationprints, etchings, landscapes, works on paper
Materialsink, paper
Materials Summaryetching
Techniquesetching
DimensionsPlate: 210mm (width), 150mm (height)
Registration Number1869-0001-177
Credit lineGift of Bishop Monrad, 1869

Overview

Wenceslaus (or Wenzel) Hollar (1607-77) was an Anglo-Czech artist, and one of the greatest and most prolific printmakers of the 17th century. His art  reveals his immensely wide subject range, and reflects the priorities of his time: religious prints, mythology, satire, landscapes, geography and maps, portraits, women, costumes, sports, natural history (including caterpillars, moths and snails), architecture, heraldry, numismatics, ornaments, title-pages and initials. 

This etching of a lush, wooded summer landscape is categorised by Hollar expert Richard Pennington as 'landscapes after famous painters'. It represents the interface of the leading Flemish Baroque landscape painter Jacques d'Arthois who painted the original, Hollar who made the etching and Hollar's friend Petrus van Avont, the printer/publisher. It dates from Hollar's period in Antwerp, where he spent several years in the mid-17th century, to escape from the political instability caused by the English Civil War.

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art     June 2017

http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/tag/wenceslaus-hollar/

Richard Pennington, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etched Work of Wenceslaus Hollar 1607-1677 (Cambridge, 1982), p. 209 (no. 1208).

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