Herman Van Swanevelt (1600-1655) Dutch School Old Master. This famous painter and etcher was also called Herman d'Italy or Il Erimita. Born in the Netherlands, he first went to Paris and then to Rome between 1629 and 1641. In the 1630s van Swanevelt developed in Rome, in collaboration with his colleague and contemporary Claude Lorrain, what in those days was a new type of idyllic ideal landscape whose sunlit 'contrejours' reflected the times of day and which Swanevelt continued to disseminate in the North after he moved to Paris. It was however chiefly his etchings which made this new type of landscape accessible to a large public, and which decisively contributed to the development of the taste for landscape art into the eighteenth century, notably in France. In terms of quality and quantity, Swanevelt was the foremost etcher among the early Italianates. The first of his etchings were made in Rome, probably stimulated by the French etchers Charles Audran, who lived in his house there from 1632 to 1634, and by Claude Lorrain, who made 39 etchings in the 1630s, while most of Swanevelt's - 90 - originated in Paris. Offered here is an original etching dated 1654, image approx. 9-1/4 x 13 in. plus margins. The title: Venus pleure van Adonis. Another example of this particular etching is identified as "Venus treurt om de dood van Adonis" at the Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands. Condition: image area is very good; staining in some margin areas.

Condition: image area is very good; staining in some margin areas.