Etching and drypoint. 176x150 mm. State II/IV. Good specimen.
Famous representation of the smoker, first performed by the Dutch painter in 1667. It is signed in the plate A. Ostade. With a masterful sense of scale and composition, Ostade s controlled cross hatching creates depth and form; from the voluminous smoker s sleeve to the delicate grape leaves hanging over the window frame to the painstaking subtleties of the wooden shutter. Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685) lived and worked in Haarlem. He may have been apprenticed to Frans Hals together with Adriaen Brouwer. The latter s influence is discernable in Van Ostade's early paintings. He continued to paint scenes of village life in taverns and domestic interiors throughout his career. He also painted the seamier side of life: disreputable lawyers, teachers and quacksalvers.
L. Godefroy, The complete etchings of Adriaen Van Ostade, 1990, pp. 62-63, n. 10.
Eight mythological scenes.
Strasbourg, 1573 ca.
Burin engravings. Images in oval of 50x65 mm. Sheets of 60x75 mm ca. Latin titles within the frame of the oval medallions, followed by the monogram “S F” Good state of conservation.
The scenes depict hunts or fights with Hercules, Meleager and other mythological heroes.
The engravings are, from left to right:
1. [Hercules offering a sacrifice to Diana]: Cornua de timidis sacras votiva Diana / S. F.
2. [Cephalus and Amphitryon hunt the fox of Thebes]: Stant canis et vulpes victori æterna trophæa / S. F.
3. [James presenting the golden fleece to Pelias]: Pelle capræ prudens animosas continet iras / S. F.
4. [Hercules chasing the cheeky-footed deer]: Cerva fugax East Timor audacia quem domat una / S. F.
5. [Hercules kidnapping Diomede's horses]: Tracis equos domitas veneris contemtor et oci / S. F.
6. [Meleager offers the boar's head to Atalanta]: Præmia prima report primo que vulneris auctor / S. F.
7. [Atalanta and Meleager chasing the Calydonian boar]: Figit aprum prima iaculans atalanta sagitta / S. F.
8. [Hercules killing Diomedes]: Segnities et luxus equi sunt sanguine pasti / S. F.
Étienne Delaune, ca 1518 - 1583, goldsmith, draftsman and engraver arrived in Strasbourg around 1570. According to Robert Dumesnil, he was known in his time by the name of Maître Étienne and in Latin Stephanus. He created in Strasbourg, around 1573, a series of oval engravings with mythological subjects, entitled “Sujets Mythologiques”.
Robert Dumesnil, Le Peintre-Graveur Français, vol. XI, (1865), 107; Christophe Pollet, Les Gravures d'Etienne Delaune, (1518-1583), vol. II, (Villeneuve d'Asq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2003), 302.