Goats: Plate 1: A goat standing in a landscape (frontispiece)

item details

NameGoats: Plate 1: A goat standing in a landscape (frontispiece)

ProductionMarcus de Bye; etcher; Mid 17th century; Netherlands
Paulus Potter; artist
Nicolaes Visscher the Younger; publisher

Classificationprints, etchings, works on paper

Materialsink, paper

Materials Summaryetching

Techniquesetching

DimensionsImage: 136mm (width), 107mm (height)

Registration Number1869-0001-51

Credit lineGift of Bishop Monrad, 1869

Overview

The Dutch printmaker Marcus de Bye (also de Bije/ de Bie) is little-known in relation to his talent and prolificness. He was born in The Hague in 1639 and died after 1688. He became a pupil of Jacob van der Does in 1658. Better known as an engraver and etcher than a painter, he engraved several series of animal studies after Paulus Potter and also produced a number of original engravings.

Te Papa has a near complete set (seven out of eight plates) from the Goats and he-goats series, based on designs by the brilliant but sadly short-lived animal artist Paulus Potter (1625-1654), and subsequently published by Nicolaes Visscher the Elder. The prints were presented to the Colonial Museum in 1869 by Bishop Ditlev Monrad. In this title-page/frontispiece etching, a goat stands in a landscape, facing right and looking towards background, with a tree to the left and the obligatory 'credit lines' inscribed beneath it. What can the goat see that we can't see? Perhaps the contents of what is to come!

See: https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1617118&partId=1&searchText=de+bye+goat&page=1

Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art April 2019