"Twelfth Night" or "The Bean Feast", by Jan Steen (1668), antique etching on copper by William Unger, undated, 1870s-1880s. Signed in plate "J. Steen pinx. / W. Unger sculps."

Picture mat, glass frame. COA is included.

Copper etching on paper, 9" x 7.1/2" [23cm x 19cm]; antique picture mat, glass wooden frame, 14.1/2" x 13" [37cm x 33cm], very good condition.

Twelfth Night is a Christian holiday that marks the coming of Three Kings Day. In the 17th-century Low Countries it was celebrated as a Bean-Feast at which a goose would be eaten, and a cake carved up between the people present. The person who got the slice containing a bean would be "king" for the night. Whenever he took a drink the rest would cheer.

In Steen's painting a young boy, standing on a bench and wearing a paper crown, has earned the right to be king and is being offered a drink by one of the other diners. His mother, somewhat the worse for wear, looks on with pride. In the middle of the floor a man, selected by the king as court jester, is playing the traditional rommelpot, a rudimentary instrument made by covering the mouth of a pot with skin and poking a stick through the membrane. Rubbing the stick makes a noise. Behind the young king another man is also playing the fool by wearing a metal funnel as a hat and making "music" with a ladle and gridiron.

Jan Havickszoon Steen (c.1626-1679) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, one of the leading genre painters of the 17th century. His works are known for their psychological insight, sense of humor and abundance of colour. Daily life was Jan Steen's main pictorial theme. Many of the genre scenes he portrayed, as in The Feast of Saint Nicholas, are lively to the point of chaos and lustfulness, even so much that "a Jan Steen household," meaning a messy scene, became a Dutch proverb (een huishouden van Jan Steen). Subtle hints in his paintings seem to suggest that Steen meant to warn the viewer rather than invite him to copy this behaviour. Many of Steen's paintings bear references to old Dutch proverbs or literature. He often used members of his family as models, and painted quite a few self-portraits in which he showed no tendency of vanity.

William Unger, (1837-1932) printmaker; painter / draughtsman; Engraver, etcher and lithographer; worked in Hannover, Munich and Duesseldorf; worked for 'Gazette des Beaux-Arts' and 'L'Art'. Member correspondent of the Societe internationale des aquafortistes.

William Unger is important not only as an etcher but as an influential scholar and teacher. Serving as professor of graphic arts at the Vienna Academy he taught etching techniques to many of the finest Austrian, German and French artists of the early twentieth century. He was also a founder of "Zeitschrift fuer Bildendekunst" (1866), an important journal which promoted etching, engraving and lithography. Unger's autobiography, "Aus meinen Leben", was published in Vienna in 1928.

William Unger began his formal art studies in 1854 as a student of Joseph Keller, in Dusseldorf. He then finished his studies at the Academy in Leipzig. During his successful career as an etcher Unger received numerous awards including medals from expositions in Paris (1878), Vienna (1888) and Berlin (1891). William Unger became most famous for his etchings after the paintings of both old masters and contemporary artists, and these reproductive works occupied most of his career. Original etchings -- that is, those both designed and etched by him -- were limited to only a small number.

References:

Source: P.G. Hamerton's Etching and Etchers, 1880
W.U. Self portrait etching: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. [1988.20.41]
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York--"Adam & Eve" etching [Accession Number:17.3.1258]
British Museum, London owns over thirty prints by Wilhem Unger, including several etchings after the painters of Dutch Golden Age.

Rates vary per zone / country, we will adjust the shipping costs with the invoice.

US: Priority (c.2-4 days) -------------- $76.50
Canada: Express (c.5-10 days) -------- $110.50
World: Express (c.5-14 days) -------- $140.50