Etching. 



33 



Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp, Italy, England; 1599-1641) 

 was not a prolific etcher (he only produced nineteen portraits and two 

 subjects), but his style of etching shows a most perfect convention, and 

 his portraiture is incomparable in its direct vigour. His portrait etchings 

 were probably all done between his return from Italy in 1626 and his 

 settlement in London in 1632, and were designed to form part of his 

 scheme of a series of portrait prints of famous men, embodied in his 

 IconograpJiy. Apart from the few original etchings mentioned (some of 

 which were elaborated in later states by line -engravers), Van Dyck for the 

 most part merely placed chalk or sepia drawings in the hands of his 

 engravers. There is no record of a collected edition during Van Dyck's 

 lifetime, the first issue with a title being that published by Grilles 

 Hendricx in 1645. See also the section on Engraving, p. 25. 



In Rembrandt (Leyden, Amsterdam ; 1606-69) we meet the greatest 

 of all etchers. As a painter he has rivals, but his etched work, which 

 includes about 800 plates, shows a technical accomplishment, a variety 

 of range, and a depth of expression which is matched in no other master. 

 He is equally great in subjects from Scripture or daily life, portraits or 

 landscape. In portrait his style is more varied and complex, sometimes 

 more questionable, than Van Dyck's, but deeper in its penetrative 

 insight. 



His earlier work (from about 1628-40) is for the most part in pure 

 etching, done with a clear open style. From about 1640 he tends to 

 develop in etching, as well as in painting, his special methods of chiaro- 

 scuro, obtaining remarkable effects of tone, but coming dangerously near 

 the border line that separated the etcher's from the painter's style. In 

 his later work (after about 1650), he recurs to a bolder and more open 

 manner of treating line, reserving the use of a close mesh of shading for 

 the most part for his portraits. The immediate school of Rembrandt is 

 represented in etching in Jan Lievens (Leyden, Amsterdam, England, 

 Antwerp, the Hague; 1607-74), J. G. van Vliet (Delft, Leyden; 

 b. about 1610), and Ferdinand Bol (Dordrecht, Amsterdam; 1616-80). 



Of Netherlandish landscape etchers slightly senior to Rembrandt, we 

 may mention the Fleming, Lucas van Uden (Antwerp ; 1595-1672), 

 who followed the tradition of Rubens, Esaias van de Velde (Leyden, 

 Haarlem, the Hague ; about 1590-1630), Jan van de Velde (Haarlem, 

 Enkhuysen ; about 1593-after 1641), Pieter Molyn, the elder (Haarlem, 

 London ; 1595-1661), and Hercules Seghers (Haarlem, Amsterdam, the 

 Hague ; about 1590-1645), who is of particular interest for his experi- 

 ments in printing etchings in colour. 



Of Netherlandish landscape etchers more nearly contemporary or 

 somewhat junior to Rembrandt, the following are the most noteworthy : 



Roeland Roghman. Amsterdam. 1597-1686. 



Antonie Waterloo. Amsterdam. About 1609-after 1676. 



Jacob van Ruysdael. Haarlem, Amsterdam. 1628(29)-82. 



AUart van Everdingen. Alkmaar, Haarlem, Norway, Amsterdam. 

 1621-75. 



Bartholomeus Breenbergh. Deventer, Rome, Amsterdam. 1599- 

 before 1659. Attractive little Roman landscapes, inspired by the style of 

 Claude and Elsheimer. 



