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Overview
Johannes or Jan Luyken (1649-1712) was a Dutch poet, illustrator and engraver.He was born and died in Amsterdam, where he learned engraving from his father Kaspar Luyken. He married at 19 and had several children, of who Kasparus Luiken also became a renowned engraver. In his twenty-sixth year, he had a religious experience that inspired him to write moralistic poetry. He illustrated the 1685 edition of the Martyrs' Mirror with 104 copper etchings. Thirty of these plates survive and are part of The Mirror of the Martyrs exhibit. He also published Het Menselyk Bedryf ("The Book of Trades") in 1694, which contains numerous engravings, by Luiken and his son Caspar (Caspaares), of 17th century trades. The 19th century decadent writer Joris Karl Huysmans' anti-hero Des Esseintes was an admirer of Luyken's engravings and had prints from his Religious Persecutions hung in his drawing room. He described them as 'appalling engravings containing all the tortures that the madness of religion could devise.' Des Esseintes was enthralled not just by Luyken's graphic depictions but his ability to reconstruct times and places in his works - qualities shown perfectly in this etching/engraving.
Our print depicts a highlight on the Third Arctic Expedition of Willem Barentsz (1596). The inscription translates as 'The trip to Novaya Zemlya', and the scene here depicts a walrus hunt in Magdalenefjorden (present day Norway). It shows a small crew of Dutchmen in their sailing boat attacking a huge, obviously doomed walrus. There are other walruses on the right, and two large sailing vessels in right background, while whales spout in far distance. The print originally illustrated illustrated Pieter Christaiensz Bor's Nederlandsche Oorlogen (published by the Widow of Joannes van Someren, Abraham Wolfgangh & Hendrick en Dirck Boom, Amsterdam: 1679-1684). While the emphasis of this massive 8-volume study was the Dutch Wars, its range went well beyond this, as is evident here. The print is significant in being the first known pictorial representation of a walrus.
See:
British Museum, Catalogue online, https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3123854&partId=1&searchText=187 5,0508.52&page=1
Wikipedia, 'Jan Luyken', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Luyken
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art March 2019