1684-1756

published by Martin Engelbrecht, engraver, 1684-1756

A man, a woodwind instrument maker, stands in the center of the composition, holding a workbench over his head. There is a curved hedge with trees on the left and right in the background. At the left, a seated musician wears a tricorn hat and plays an instrument that may be an oboe; at the right, a man leans against a wall and plays a transverse flute. The woodwind instrument maker has instruments and tools attached to his person, each identified by a number corresponding to text beneath him describing the instrument or tool. Number 6 is an oboe; number 7 is a bassoon; numbers 8 and 9 are cornetts; number 10 represents recorders of various sizes.

This etching was included in The Pipers: An Exhibition of Engravings, Watercolors and Lithographs from the Dayton C. Miller Collection, Library of Congress, March 1977. See a companion print of a woman instrument maker, 0369/L.

About the Artist

Michael Rössler, engraver, 1705-1777

Michael Rössler was a German engraver who was born in Nuremburg in 1705 and who died in Copenhagen in 1777. He engraved many portraits and his most important work was for the Journal du couronnement de Charles VII (Journal of the coronation of Charles VII).[1]

1705-1777

published by Martin Engelbrecht, engraver, 1684-1756

A woman, a woodwind instrument maker, stands in the center of the composition. There is a hedge in the background with a bagpiper on the left and, on the right, a seated musician who plays an instrument that may be a chalumeau (an early clarinet). The woman wears various woodwind instruments or tools on her person, some attached at her shoulder, many attached at her belt, and each is identified by a number corresponding to text beneath her describing the instrument or tool. Number 1 is a musette; number 2 is a recorder, which she plays; number 3 is a bassoon; number 5 is a chalumeau; number 7 represents a transverse flute and a recorder; number 8 depicts cornetts; number 9 is a cow horn; and number 12 is a Turkish horn.

This etching was included in The Pipers: An Exhibition of Engravings, Watercolors and Lithographs from the Dayton C. Miller Collection, Library of Congress, March 1977. See a companion print of a man who is an instrument maker, 0368/L.

About the Artist

Michael Rössler, engraver, 1705-1777

Michael Rössler was a German engraver who was born in Nuremburg in 1705 and who died in Copenhagen in 1777. He engraved many portraits and his most important work was for the Journal du couronnement de Charles VII (Journal of the coronation of Charles VII).[1]

1866-1933

This is the cover illustration of Puck's Monthly Magazine and Almanac from the October 1907 issue. Puck was a magazine of humor and satire which contained many cartoons on social and political issues at the turn of the century.[1] In this country scene a farmer sits on a bench near his house and plays a simple cylindrical fife. His wife stands in the doorway and holds her ears. All the animals in the barnyard scatter at the fearful noise he makes. Roosters squawk and flap their wings, a dog howls, and a black cat runs away in fright. There is no text in this issue of Puck which describes the cover. It is simply a humorous illustration. The artist's initials, "L. M. G.," appear in the masthead but, in earlier issues, the artist sometimes signed his name, "L. M. Glackens," on the cover illustrations. This would be the artist, Louis M. Glackens (1866-1933), the brother of the more well-known painter, William Glackens (1870-1938).

About the Artist

Louis M. Glackens, illustrator, cartoonist and animator, 1866-1933

Louis M. Glackens was an American illustrator from Philadelphia. He began working for Puck magazine in the 1890s to which he submitted many humorous illustrations. Later, he provided drawings for early animated films. His younger brother, William Glackens (1870-1938), was part of a group of painters in New York known as the "Eight" who were also referred to as the "Ashcan School."[2]

1774-1822

after a design by John Thurston, watercolorist and draughtsman, 1774-1822

A young man sits beneath an old gnarled tree and plays a recorder. His dog lies next to him at the lower left. He faces right and wears a short coat and knee breeches. His hat and shepherd's crook rest against the tree behind him. Leafy trees fill the middle of the image. On the right, lambs frolic on the bank at the far side of the river and a church steeple is in the far distance.

This wood engraving was one of several illustrations for the poem, The Farmer's Boy, written by Robert Bloomfield (1766-1823), and arranged in four parts -- Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Bloomfield was born in the Suffolk village of Honington. His father was a tailor and his mother was a schoolmistress from whom he received his early education. He composed The Farmer's Boy between 1796 and 1798 while working as a shoemaker with his elder brother in London. Through the good graces of Capel Lofft, a Suffolk squire and a reformer, who read the manuscript, it was first published in London in 1800. It was a popular success and over 26,000 copies were sold in the first three years. In 1800 alone, The Farmer's Boy went through three editions.

The first 1800 edition had an image of a "muse" hovering in the air before a country boy who reaches for the panpipes she extends toward him. The image of the "muse" was engraved by John Anderson, another apprentice who, like Charlton Nesbit, worked with Thomas Bewick. In some printings of the first 1800 edition, the image of the "muse" and the country boy appeared facing the title page and in other printings it appeared on the title page itself. This image of the shepherd playing his recorder by Nesbit, after a design by John Thurston, first appeared as the frontispiece of The Farmer's Boy in the second edition of 1800, and appeared in subsequent editions after 1800. When compared to the frontispieces in the different editions of The Farmer's Boy, the Miller engraving is closest in style to the impression in Robert Bloomfield's The Farmer's Boy; A Rural Poem. 6th edition, 1802.[1]

About the Artists

Charlton Nesbit, wood engraver, 1775-1838

Charlton Nesbit was a wood engraver born in Swalwell in 1775 and who died in London in 1838, according to Bénézit and various print or Internet sources. At age 14, he began a seven-year apprenticeship -- from 1790 to 1797 -- in the workshop of Beilby and Bewick in Newcastle. Ralph Beilby (1743-1817), who also engraved on silver, was known for his heraldic engravings. Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) achieved renown in his lifetime as the English engraver who perfected wood engravings -- by cutting across the end grain of the wood -- which were used as vignettes for book illustrations.[2] Nesbit won two first prizes at the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures, one of which was awarded for his engraving of St. Nicholas Church in Newcastle in 1798 which was based on a watercolor by a fellow apprentice, Robert Johnson.[3] In 1799, he settled in London where he quickly established his reputation. In 1815, Nesbit returned to Newcastle but, from 1830 until his death in 1838, he lived in London. Charlton Nesbit provided several wood engravings for the following books: 1) Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell. London: Printed by W. Bulmer, Shakespeare Printing Office, 1795; and, headpieces for The Traveller and The Deserted Village. 2) Pierre Jean Baptiste Le Grand d'Aussy, Fabliaux or Tales, of 1796-1800, with wood engravings by Thomas Bewick and his two apprentices, Charlton Nesbit and Luke Clennell.[4] 3) Thomas Bewick. History of British Birds. Vol. 1: History and Description of Land Birds, of 1797.[5] 4) A Lecture on heads by Geo. Alex. Stevens…, of 1799.[6] 5) Religious emblems: being a series of engravings on wood…, of 1810.[7] 6) William Somerville. Hobbinol, Field sports, and The bowling green, of 1813.[8] 7) William Savage. Practical hints on decorative printing…, of 1822.[9] 8) James Northcote. One hundred fables, original and selected, of 1828 and 1829.[10] 9) James Northcote. Fables, original and selected: second series, of 1833.[11] Several sources mention that Nesbit provided illustrations for an edition of Shakespeare as well as for works by Sir Egarton Bridge. Nesbit also apparently contributed engravings to an edition of Gilbert White's The natural history of Selborne, published by Baldwin and Cradock in 1834, however, these could not be confirmed.

John Thurston, watercolorist and draughtsman, 1774-1822

Many of the wood engravings made by Nesbit were based on designs by John Thurston (1774-1822). Thurston was known principally for his illustrations of books, especially an edition of Shakespeare published in 1814. The Museum in Nottingham owns his Hector et Andromaque and Les Naïades. The Cabinet of Prints in the British Museum and the Museum of Nottingham have drawings by Thurston.[12]

1797-1868

This is a cartoon representing British political figures in the 1830s. It is part of a series entitled HB Sketches by John Doyle, this one being no. 557. The title, The Fate of Marsyas, refers to the mythological story of the shepherd Marsyas who challenged Apollo in a musical contest. Marsyas played the flute and Apollo his lyre and they were judged by the muses. Marsyas lost the contest and Apollo had him flayed alive.[1]

Many of the political figures are identified in pencil on this lithograph, but the true meaning behind the satire needs further research. John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham (1792-1840), is depicted as Marsyas. In 1838, Durham was sent to Canada as the Governor General of British North America to investigate the Patriotes Rebellion. He returned to Britain five months later and wrote his report which became known as the Durham report. His recommendations undoubtedly caused controversy and he was probably "flayed" politically as a result, perhaps by Lord Brougham who is represented as Apollo.[2] See also 71/U and 432/U, other political cartoons by John Doyle.

About the Artist

John Doyle, draughtsman, painter, lithographer, and caricaturist, 1797-1868

The initials "HB" represent the signature of John Doyle, an English portrait painter and caricaturist, according to Bénézit and the online Catholic Encyclopedia. Doyle was born in Dublin in 1797 and died in London in 1868. He first studied under the Italian landscape painter, Gabrielli, then with Comerford, a miniature painter, at the Academy of Drawing in Dublin. He began his career in London as a portrait painter about 1821, but without success. About 1827 or 1828, he began drawing caricatures of political figures of the day, signing his work "HB," made up of two pairs of his initials "JD" placed one above the other. Until the end of his life, few people were aware of Doyle's identity. From 1829 to 1851, he created his famous series of caricatures documenting all of the political movements of his era. These caricatures were published in The Times of London. Figures included members of Parliament, the Duke of Wellington, the Duke of York, and others. His caricatures were never mean-spirited. They were clever, sometimes biting, yet generally marked by courtesy and gentility. There are 600 of Doyle's graphic works in the Print Room of the British Museum. He retired from his professional work seventeen years before his death. His son, Richard Doyle (1824-1883), was also a caricaturist. Another son, Charles, was the father of the writer, Arthur Conan Doyle, so John Doyle was the grandfather of the man who created the famous character, Sherlock Holmes.[3]

1881-1972

This is the cover illustration for The New Yorker magazine of 14 March 1925. A faun sits in left profile and plays double pipes, or an aulos, on which a green, long-beaked bird perches facing him. A rabbit rests against the faun's back, his paws crossed over his chest, as he listens to the music of the pipes. A few spring flowers and green blades of grass are scattered in the foreground. A scalloped red border decorates the left edge.

The artist's initials in the square at the lower right, "R I," represent Rea Irvin, the magazine's first art editor and designer of its distinctive layout and typeface. The first issue of The New Yorker was dated 21 February 1925, so this March 1925 issue with the faun playing his pipes was one of the first issues to be published. It was Rea Irvin who illustrated the first cover of The New Yorker with a top-hatted Regency dandy who observes a butterfly through his monocle. This figure, "Eustace Tilley," became famous as the very symbol of wit and urbanity that The New Yorker represented, and for many years was used as the anniversary cover published each February.[1]

The image of Faun playing an aulos is reproduced here without The New Yorker masthead, according to copyright restrictions outlined by Condé Nast, publisher of The New Yorker. However, permission has been granted by The Irvin Estate for a one-time reproduction of Rea Irvin's art work, Faun playing an aulos, without the masthead, for this Web site on the prints in the Dayton C. Miller Collection, with the added request from The Irvin Estate that the image be displayed here as a "thumbnail-size" image only. Rea Irvin's Faun playing an aulos is reproduced in this Web site Courtesy of the Irvin Estate. No reproduction without permission.[2]

About the Artist

Rea Irvin, illustrator and art editor of The New Yorker magazine, 1881-1972

Rea Irvin was born in San Francisco. He studied briefly at the Hopkins Art Institute there and provided cartoon illustrations for The San Francisco Examiner. By age 25, he had moved east and provided illustrations for Life and Cosmopolitan magazines. In 1925, he became The New Yorker magazine's first art editor. Irvin designed its layout, its column format, and its typeface. He produced hundreds of its illustrations, as well, including 169 of its covers from 1925 to 1958. Many of Irvin's drawings on which The New Yorker illustrations were based were donated to the Museum of the City of New York in 1967. Some were shown at an exhibition, The Talk of the Town: Rea Irvin of The New Yorker, at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, in March 2000.[3]

1477/78-1510

after a painted copy by David Teniers, the younger, painter and engraver, 1610-1690, of a lost painting by Giorgione, ca. 1477/78-1510

This is an etching of a lost painting by Giorgione entitled The Finding of Paris. David Teniers, the younger (1610-1690), painted a copy of this Giorgione when it was in the collection of the Archduke of Austria, Leopold Wilhelm (1614-1662), governor of southern (Spanish) Netherlands from 1647 to 1656, whose palace was in Brussels. In 1651, Teniers had moved to Brussels on being appointed court painter to the Archduke and keeper of his art collection.[1] In 1937, the date of Richter's book on Giorgione (cited below), Teniers' copy of Giorgione's Finding of Paris was in the collection of Signora Ch. Loeser in Florence, but its current location is not known. It was recently reproduced in The Genius of Venice: 1500-1600, but the caption mistakenly states that this painting was in the collection of the Courtauld Institute Galleries, London.[2]

Teniers copied other paintings in the collection of the Archduke, including works by Dürer, Bellini, Brueghel, Rubens, Correggio, Jan van Eyck, Holbein, Titian, and at least one other Giorgione, The Three Philosophers; but, he made over 200 pasticci, or painted copies, of late fifteenth- to seventeenth-century Italian paintings in the Archduke's collection for a special purpose. These painted copies served as the models for fourteen engravers whom Teniers engaged to make prints after them. Among the engravers were Theodoor (or Théodorus) van Kessel (ca. 1620- after 1660, possibly 1693), Jan van Troyen (ca. 1610-after 1670/71), Coryn Boel (1620-1668), Lucas Vorstermann II (1624-1666), and Pieter van Lisebetten (1630-ca.1678). Over 240 of these engravings and etchings were published in book form which comprised the highlights of the Italian paintings in the Archduke's collection. This book of etchings and engravings was first published by Teniers in 1660 as the Theatrum Pictorium with texts in Latin, French, Spanish and Flemish.[3] Two editions are in the Library of Congress, 1660 and [1684].[4]

An exhibition, David Teniers and the Theatre of Painting, was held recently at the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, Somerset House, London.[5] The Courtauld owns fourteen of Teniers' paintings copied from originals by other artists in Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's collection. This exhibition examines in detail the history of Teniers' Theatrum Pictorium. For most of the thirty-one catalogue entries, the original paintings formerly in the Archduke's collection, Teniers' copies after them, and the engraved prints from the Theatrum Pictorium have been reproduced for comparison, but the painting by Teniers, The Finding of Paris, after the lost Giorgione, was not included in this exhibition. From old photographic reproductions of this painting by Teniers, one can see that the Miller etching by van Kessel is a mirror-image of Giorgione's painting, The Finding of Paris, as copied by Teniers.

The Miller print was most likely a plate from one of the editions of the Theatrum Pictorium, but the edition from which it came has yet to be discovered.[6] A comparison with the impression in the Antwerp edition of 1660 in the Library of Congress and the Miller print does confirm that both etchings were made from the same plate. The plate measurements are identical, though the sheet size of the impression in the Antwerp edition is slightly larger than the Miller version. The 1660 Antwerp edition impression is more crisply defined than the Miller etching which appears to have been more heavily inked. Because of this, the facial expressions of the figures in the impression in the Antwerp 1660 edition have a softer, more expressive quality, while the expressions are more harsh and heavy in the Miller version. Also, many of the details of the landscape are clearer in the impression in the Antwerp edition; the heavier inking of the Miller plate has obscured some of the finer details in the print.

The plate by van Kessel in the Antwerp edition of 1660 includes an inscription giving the measurements of the original painting in the bottom margin beneath the infant: "8 Alta. 11 Lata." Though barely discernible, the measurement inscription is still visible in the Miller etching, but it appears to have been removed from the print, as the surface of the paper in the bottom margin is slightly lighter in color in this area. Though it is unclear why it would have been removed, it appears that the inscription on the Miller print was lightly rubbed or scraped away in this area because, under heavy magnification, one can see a few paper fibers lifted away from the surface. There is a tiny circular area in the bottom margin, beneath the right foot of the recorder player, also slightly lighter in color than the paper around it, which may indicate that some other notation was also removed from the Miller etching.

Plate numbers did not appear on the images in the 1660 edition of the Theatrum Pictorium, only the measurements of the original paintings after which the prints were copied. Beginning with the second edition of 1673, however, plate numbers were added to the bottom margin of all the images. The plate numbers were placed to the right of center in the bottom margin between the measurements of the original painting and the printmaker's name, and the same plate numbers were used in all subsequent editions of the Theatrum Pictorium. In the case of The Finding of Paris, the plate number was "21," and it was placed in the bottom margin beneath the right foot of the recorder player, where it must have been placed originally in the Miller print. It is not now possible to determine the plate number of the Miller print, even under magnification, but it seems likely that it was once numbered plate 21, and that this number has also been removed from the print. If a number "21" did once appear on this print, the Miller etching probably came from a later edition of the Theatrum Pictorium, perhaps the 1673 edition, or a later edition.

The subject of this Miller etching is a story from mythology: the finding of the infant Paris after his abandonment on Mount Ida. George Martin Richter, the author of a book on Giorgione (cited below), suggests that the subject of Giorgione's painting "is probably derived from Virgil," but the story of the infant Paris is not described in Virgil. The myth of the infant Paris is given in The Library by Apollodorus, a Greek grammarian who lived in the second century B.C. In Book III, chapter XII, section 5, the story of the birth of Paris and his abandonment is described: Paris was the son of King Priam and Queen Hecabe of Troy. Before his birth, Hecabe dreamed her son would be the cause of the destruction of Troy. Aesacus, a diviner, advised the king and queen to leave the child exposed in the wilderness on Mount Ida, and the child was given to a servant, Agelaus, to do as the king wished. After several days, Agelaus returned to find the child had survived because a bear had nursed him in the wilderness. Agelaus took the child home with him, named him Paris, and brought him up as his own son. Paris grew up as a shepherd and protected his father's flocks, and he fell in love with Oenone, a nymph on Mount Ida. Later, Paris was asked by Hermes to decide which of the goddesses was the fairest -- Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite -- and to present that goddess with a golden apple. Since Aphrodite had promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world -- Helen -- as his wife, Paris chose Aphrodite as the fairest goddess. His love for Helen and his pursuit of her was the cause of the Trojan War.[7]

In the Miller etching several figures in the foreground surround the infant Paris who is lying in the grass near a stream. On the left are two shepherds, one of whom walks with a staff while the other points to the child. An old man sits against a tree trunk at the lower right and plays a recorder.[8] A woman sits on a hillock above the old man and she gazes down toward the baby. In the middle distance, a group of figures rests by the stream. At the upper left, two other figures are beneath the trees in front of a group of thatched buildings. They appear to be watching over a flock of sheep grazing just to the right of them.[9]

See another print in the Miller collection from the Theatrum Pictorium, 13/L. It will be helpful to compare this print by van Troyen to van Kessel's The Finding of Paris to see how the dimensions and plate number were placed in the bottom margin of the print in later editions of the Theatrum Pictorium, since similar inscriptions were apparently removed from The Finding of Paris.

About the Artists

Theodoor van Kessel, engraver, ca. 1620-after 1660

In an exhibition, David Teniers and the Theatre of Painting, at the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, 2006-2007, the author of one of the essays, Margret Klinge, on page 31, mentions van Kessel as one of the engravers of the Theatrum Pictorium. She gives his full name as Theodoor van Kessel and his life dates as ca. 1620-after 1660. Bénézit gives a different spelling to the name and a very much later death date: Théodorus van Kessel, a Dutch engraver, who was born about 1620 and who died in 1693, and who was established in Antwerp by 1652. Bénézit also states that in 1679, a Theodor Andreas van Kessel, engraver, was in the guild at Antwerp, and he was a guild inspector in 1688. See Bénézit for examples of his signature.

David Teniers, the younger, painter and engraver, 1610-1690

David Teniers, the younger, was a well known 17th-century Flemish artist who was a genre painter and engraver. He was born in Antwerp in 1610 and died in Brussels in 1690. He was the eldest of four sons of David Teniers, the elder (1582-1649), a painter and engraver, with whom he first studied. Very little is known about the younger Teniers' early life. He was received as a master in the Antwerp guild of St. Luke in 1632-1633. In 1637, he married Anna Brueghel, daughter of Jan Brueghel of Velours, who brought wealth and, above all, a close friendship with Rubens, whose second wife, Hélène Fourment, was the godmother of their eldest son, David Teniers III. In 1644, David Teniers, the younger, was named dean of the guild of St. Luke. Teniers was known above all for his genre paintings, at first smokey tavern scenes in the1630s which closely resembled the work of Adriaen Brouwer (1605/06-1638). By the 1640s, he painted more open-air scenes of country life with peasants reveling at fairs, often with an inn in the background.

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm was named governor of the Low Countries in 1646 and he was a powerful protector to Teniers, who began working for the archduke in 1647. By 1651, the archduke appointed Teniers painter to the court, chamberlain, and curator of his painting gallery, which housed a magnificent collection. Teniers purchased Italian paintings from the collection of Charles I for the archduke's collection, and he painted at least eight different views of the archduke's galleries. Most importantly, Teniers produced a catalogue of the archduke's paintings which were copied by various engravers. He himself painted copies of many of the Italian paintings which were used as models for the engravers. The illustrated catalogue was published in 1660 under the title Theatrum Pictorium.

The archduke often sent the work of Teniers to other sovereigns and recommended his work to them. King Philip IV of Spain commissioned many paintings by Teniers, and Prince William II of Orange and Christina of Sweden were also great collectors of his paintings. Don Juan of Austria, the natural son of King Philip IV, succeeded Archduke Leopold Wilhelm as governor of the Low Countries from 1656 to 1659. Also an enthusiast of the work of Teniers, Don Juan confirmed all of his court positions and commissions and even became his student.

After 1650, Teniers left Antwerp for Brussels. In 1656, his wife Anna died but, in the same year, he married Isabelle de Fren, daughter of André de Fren, secretary to the Council of Brabant. In 1662, he bought from Jan-Baptist Broekoven and Hélène Fourment the chateau of Drij Toren (Three Towers), at Perk, near Vilvoorde, which he made his summer residence. In 1663, Teniers was ennobled and, in the same year he took an active part in the foundation of an art academy in Antwerp to which he was named its first director. Teniers, who died at age 80 in 1690, was a prolific painter. He produced perhaps over a thousand works, his late paintings being more pastoral and idyllic in nature. His second wife died in 1683, and the end of his life was troubled by illness and legal disputes within the family, which were not settled until after his death.[10]

Giorgione, history painter, portraitist, and landscapist with figures, 1477/78-1510

Giorgione was a 16th-century painter of the Venetian School. He was born in either 1477 or 1478 in Castelfranco and he died in Venice in 1510. Very few works are attributed to him with absolute certainty, perhaps less than twenty, and many have been lost. Said to have been self-taught, it is believed he was much influenced by Leonardo's technique of sfumato, a veiled mistiness or atmospheric quality where landscape and sky meet on the horizon. He was a fine colorist and his own work is characterized by a "Giorgionesque glow." Giorgione studied with Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516). Titian (ca. 1488-1576) and Palma il Vecchio (ca. 1480-1528) were thought to have been fellow students under Bellini, though Titian probably studied with Giorgione also. Certainly Giorgione and Titian worked together on paintings and authorship of one or the other has varied over the centuries. Some of Giorgione's most famous paintings (though some are now attributed in part to Titian) are: the Sleeping Venus in Dresden; The Three Philosophers in Vienna; The Tempest in Venice; and the Concert Champêtre in the Louvre in Paris.[11]

1684-1756

In this charming and richly painted scene, a man with long white hair is seated in a tall red-and-gilt-upholstered chair. He wears an embroidered floor-length coat of cinnamon color which is highlighted all over with gilding. He also wears a white shirt, green breeches, red stockings, and black, gold-buckled shoes. He rests his left leg over his right knee, and plays a recorder, probably a treble recorder, also known as an alto recorder. The man sits near an open balcony that overlooks a formal garden in the right background. A table at the right is covered with a blue cloth with yellow fringe and, on top, are several wind instruments and sheet music, as well as an inkwell with quill. The instruments on the table are: an oboe, a recorder, two flageolets, and a dark brown clarinet. A brown and white dog with a yellow collar reclines at the left behind the man's chair. A pier directly behind the man has a cornice supported by a figure of Atlas, and a red curtain is draped behind it. In the far left corner next to the pier is a fagot, or bassoon. This etching is beautifully hand-colored in reds, greens, yellows, blues, and orangey-browns. The man's face and hands are delicately colored with a blush pink and his inner sleeves are painted in a deeper rose color. Details throughout the image are touched with gilding: the bassoon, the key of the oboe, the buckles of the man's shoes, his coat, the dog's collar, and the fringe of the blue tablecloth.

A rough translation of the inscription is as follows: "The wind as nothing seems to be in the world / Makes by means of turned wooden tubes, / If tongue and teeth are correctly applied, / That real wonderful sounds can be heard, / The loveliness of the sweet pipes / Can not be appreciated with senses. // In a shady vale / The flutes and a flageolet / Together with the praiseworthy nightingale / Most gracefully have a singing competition; / And the bassoon with deep roar / Makes the bass buzz as a foundation for it."[1] The date of ca. 1720 for this print is based on the information given in an invoice at the time of its purchase from a book shop in Amsterdam in 1936. The same date is penciled at the bottom edge of the sheet.

This print was included in the exhibition, In Praise of Music, held at the Library of Congress, Foyer, Madison Building, and the Performing Arts Library, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, April 23-October 25, 1992, no. 66, illustrated (in sepia), in which it was given a date of ca. 1720-1730.

About the Artist

Martin Engelbrecht, engraver and publisher, 1684-1756

Martin Engelbrecht, or Enghelbrecht, was a German engraver who was born in Augsburg in 1684; he died in the same city in 1756, according to Bénézit. He was the younger brother of Christian Engelbrecht (1672-1735), also an engraver from Augsburg. Both artists provided plates for numerous books. Martin provided illustrations for La Guerre de succession espagnole (The War of Spanish Succession), Les Architects princiers (Princely Architects) by P. Decker, and 92 Vues de Venise (92 Views of Venice). Christian provided plates for L'Histoire de l'Architecture (History of Architecture) by J. Hernahrd, published 1721, as well as illustrations for Métamorphoses d'Ovide (Metamorphoses of Ovid) after drawings by Sandart. Christian also engraved portraits. Though it is not mentioned in Bénézit, Martin Engelbrecht was probably also a publisher as the abbreviation for "exc." ("excudit") at the lower right usually indicates the publisher. It can also mean the one who made the print as it is translated literally as "struck out" or "made," but in this instance "fecit" ("made") is also used in the inscription. Therefore, Martin Engelbrecht "made" ("fecit") this print, meaning he engraved it, and he published it as well. The "A.V." after "exc." refers to Augsburg, meaning the print was "published in Augsburg." See Miller numbers 368/L and 369/L, by Michael Rössler, which were also published ("excudit") by Martin Engelbrecht.[2]

1607-1665

after a mezzotint by Wallerant Vaillant, painter, draughtsman, and mezzotint engraver, 1623-1677, based on a painting by Gerard Pietersz. van Zyl, called Geraers, or Gerards Geraers, portrait and genre painter, 1607-1665

This is an image of a musical group consisting of a woman and two men. The woman is seated in left profile at the right. She holds a recorder in her hands and appears to be singing (or speaking) while an older man sits across from her at the left and holds open a book of music. A young man stands behind the woman and he places his right hand on the shoulder of the older man as he, too, gazes toward the music. The setting is an interior with a single column or pilaster in the right background and a draped curtain at the upper left. The opening in the center background may be a view of the outside with a simple horizon line and a sky, or it may be a view into another room. Miller recorded the title of this work as Unterricht im Flotenspiel (Lesson in flute playing). The title, The Flute Lesson, is its title as given in Hollstein, cited below.

The original painter of this scene was Gerard Pietersz. van Zyl (1607-1665), a Dutch painter who was known for his scenes of small groups of figures around a table playing musical instruments or backgammon. He was called "Geraers" or "Gerards Geraers" and was known as the "little Van Dyck." See 16/N, an etching by G. Texier, probably also based on a painting by van Zyl. The central woman in 16/N is very similar to the woman in this mezzotint and the same model must have posed for both original paintings by van Zyl. Her hairstyle, her hands, and her clothing are nearly identical in both prints. She also holds a recorder in her hands in both works, though the instrument itself is slightly different in each print.

Though van Zyl was the painter of this image, this mezzotint by Valck was actually copied from another mezzotint by Wallerant Vaillant (1623-1677) which was based on the same van Zyl painting. The Valck mezzotint is the reverse of the Vaillant mezzotint and it has slightly smaller dimensions than the one by Vaillant.[1] The abbreviation after Valck's name on the Miller mezzotint, "exud," refers to the Latin term "excudit" meaning "struck out" or "made." It usually refers to the publisher of a print, so Valck probably engraved this mezzotint and published it himself, as well.

The collector's mark on the verso of this print, a "GR," refers to Georg Ràth (1828-1904), former President of the Senate in Budapest, who began collecting prints as a young man. By 1869, he decided to sell his print collection and he collected, instead, paintings, Celtic bronzes, and antique statuary. He was considered one of the most important collectors in Hungary, and many of the works he collected are now in the Georg Ràth Landesmuseum.[2]

About the Artists

Gerard Valck, engraver and publisher, 1651/52-1726

Gerard Valck was a Dutch mezzotint engraver and publisher who was born in and died in Amsterdam. The son of an Amsterdam silversmith, Valck was a student of Abraham Blooteling (1640-1690), a draughtsman, engraver and publisher, whose sister Valck married. In 1672, Valck went to London with Blooteling and may have remained in London until at least 1680. Valck engraved portraits of English nobility, many after paintings by Sir Peter Lely, and he collaborated frequently with Blooteling.[3] In Amsterdam, Valck, together with his brother-in-law, Pieter Schenk, and later with his son, Leonardus Valck, published atlases and maps, and produced prints of various subjects.[4]

Wallerant Vaillant, painter, draughtsman, and mezzotint engraver, 1623-1677

Wallerant Vaillant was a French-born painter, draughtsman, and engraver. He was the first professional mezzotint engraver, a technique he learned in 1658 from Prince Rupert of the Rhine at Frankfurt am Main. Vaillant studied in Antwerp, belonged to the painter's guild in Middelburg, but lived and worked most of his life in Amsterdam, except for the years 1659 to 1665 when he lived in Paris. Vaillant made over 200 prints, from his own paintings, and from paintings by his contemporaries. A review of Vaillant's prints in Hollstein reveals that he made many mezzotint engravings after the paintings of van Zyl, most of which were musical groups.[5] Vaillant's prints were much copied, well into the 18th century.[6]

Gerard Pietersz. van Zyl, called Geraers or Gerards Geraers, portrait and genre painter, 1607-1665

The Dutch painter, Gerard Pietersz. van Zyl, was probably the artist whose name is given as "Guerards" on this etching. He was also called "Geraers" or "Gerards Geraers" and was known as the "little Van Dyck" as he knew and worked with Van Dyck in London from 1639-1641. According to an article by J. H. J. Mellaart, "The Works of G. P. Van Zyl," in Burlington Magazine 41(15 September 1922): 146-149, van Zyl was a painter of some renown. He is mentioned in the poems of Vondel, Vos and Spillebout and, in the 17th and 18th centuries, van Zyl's paintings were more costly than those of Vermeer and Rembrandt. As he often did not sign his paintings, his works were sometimes attributed to Gabriel Metsu or Pieter de Hooch.

Mellaart mentioned that Houbraken wrote a memoir on van Zyl "about fifty years later." It was Houbraken who referred to van Zyl as the "little van Dyck." Houbraken also stated that the artist Moninck imitated van Zyl's work and that after van Zyl's death, Johannes Verkolje worked on his unfinished paintings. Various sources give van Zyl's birthplace as Haarlem, Leiden, or Amsterdam. Mellaart refers to Amsterdam as his "native town" and that van Zyl's birth date of 1607 was confirmed by a Dr. Bredius. It was also Dr. Bredius who discovered that van Zyl's father was a frame maker from Haarlem who had hoped his son would pursue a career in law. Instead, in 1629, van Zyl studied in Amsterdam with Jan Symonsz Pynas (1583/84-1631), a history painter and etcher. After his years in London, van Zyl returned to Amsterdam in 1641. According to Mellaart, van Zyl lived quite prosperously in Amsterdam until his death there in 1665. Though Mellaart does not give the full details of Houbraken's memoir on van Zyl, the man to whom Mellaart refers is Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719), a Dutch painter who also wrote an important three-volume work in Dutch artists entitled De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (The great theater of Netherlandish men and women painters), published in Amsterdam, 1718-1721, revised 1753. This contains a series of biographies of Dutch artists from the early 16th century onward for which Houbraken relied on written and oral sources.[7]

1699-1773

after Hubert François Bourguignon d'Anville, called Gravelot, painter, draughtsman, engraver, 1699-1773

This is a beautiful and delicately drawn etching. A shepherd stands at the edge of the woods on the right. He plays a wind instrument with a flared bell, perhaps a shawm, or a type of recorder. The shepherd guards a flock of sheep which lies resting at the left. A dog sits at the lower right, and a crook and lyre lie on the ground before him. A few buildings are in the left distance.

The name Admetus in the inscription refers to King Admetus of Pherae in Thessaly, a figure from Greek mythology. As a punishment from Zeus for killing the Cyclopes for the death of his son, Asclepius, Apollo was ordered to serve as a mortal for one year. Thus it was that Apollo served as a herdsman for King Admetus. The lyre in the etching identifies the shepherd as Apollo. Apollo played the lyre with great skill but, in this image, the lyre is discarded in favor of the "flute" while he watches over the flock belonging to Admetus.[1]

There is a fine red-tinted edging on the left and top of this etching. It was probably intended as a book illustration, and was perhaps a frontispiece.

About the Artists

Claude-Augustin-Pierre Duflos, engraver, 1700-1786

Claude-Augustin-Pierre Duflos is probably the engraver of this work. Not much information is given about him in Bénézit, other than he engraved works after Boucher, Pater, Schenau, Bernard, Le Barbier, and others. There is a more senior engraver, Claude Duflos (1665-1727), who may have been a relative of Claude-Augustin-Pierre Duflos, and who is often confused with the younger artist. The elder Duflos engraved works after Lebrun, Perugino, and Girardon. As the life dates of the younger Duflos are closer to those of Gravelot, it seems more likely that the younger Duflos is the engraver of this work.

Hubert François Bourguignon d'Anville, called Gravelot, painter, draughtsman, engraver, 1699-1773

Gravelot was the younger brother of the celebrated geographer, Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, according to Bénézit. He studied under Boucher, joined the suite of the French ambassador to Rome, but left at Lyon and returned to Paris, dissolute. Sent to Saint-Domingue, eventually he was repatriated to France, as a "prodigal son." He lived in England for a while, became an intimate friend of Hogarth and engraved some of Hogarth's first plates, eventually returning to France. He was known principally for his illustrations of books by Boccaccio, Corneille, Racine, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. According to Bénézit, Gravelot was "A draughtsman by taste, an engraver by necessity."

1595-1675

after a painting by Otto Vorsterman, painter, 17th century

This is a three-quarter length portrait of a gentleman playing a transverse flute. His head is turned to the left but his eyes gaze right toward the flute. His beret-like cap has a rolled brim and three feathers attached to it on the right. He has a Van Dyck beard and mustache and wears a short jacket slashed in short diagonal cuts. Over his left arm (on viewer's right) is a piece of drapery, possibly a cape.

The title of this engraving, The Flute Player, comes from its entry in the catalogue raisonné of Vorsterman's work by Henri Simon Hymans, Lucas Vorsterman, 1595-1675, et son oeuvre gravé.[1] It is not illustrated in Hymans, but its description matches the Miller print. This engraving is also included and reproduced in Hollstein's Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450-1700, vol. 43, p. 124, no. 128, illus. p. 125 as The Flute Player, after Otto Vorsterman whose monogram "OV" is at the upper left.[2]

The measurements for this engraving in Hymans and in Hollstein are 26.6 x 19.3 cm., so the Miller print is slightly smaller at 26.1 x 19.0 cm. Though there are losses at the bottom corners of the Miller engraving, it seems to match the description of the second state as described in Hollstein. The lower left corner of the Miller engraving has been lost, but the inscription there in the second state originally read, per Hollstein: "O Vorsterman pnxit." At the lower right corner where there is also a loss in the Miller engraving, the full inscription originally read: "L. Vorstermā cūm pr."

Here is a translation of the verse beneath the image, read left to right, top lines first then bottom lines: "So many enjoy playing this or that / Either zither or Lute or Basconter [contrabass?] or anything; / But for me and I know it for sure, / That playing the pipe is best of all."[3]

About the Artists

Lucas Vorsterman, the elder, draughtsman and engraver, 1595-1675

Lucas Vorsterman was a Flemish engraver who was born in Zaltbommel in 1595 and who died in Antwerp in 1675. He also became an art dealer. He studied with Rubens about 1617-1618, who trained Vorsterman carefully, especially for the reproduction of his paintings. Vorsterman was a masterful engraver, but he chafed at the demands of Rubens who worked closely with the engraver from about 1618-1620 to ensure faithful and accurate reproductions of his paintings, with Vorsterman continually refining his technique to do so. Though Rubens was the godfather of Vorsterman's eldest son, the working relationship between Rubens and Vorsterman soon took a violent turn. It is said that Vorsterman made an attempt on Rubens' life. By 1624, their working relationship had ended, and Vorsterman went to England in that year and engraved works from the painting and drawing collections of Charles I, the Earl of Arundel, and the Earl of Pembroke. By 1630 or 1631, Vorsterman returned to Antwerp and he made engravings for Van Dyck's Iconography. This was a collection of engraved portraits by various artists after paintings by Van Dyck. The sitters included princes, military figures, philosophers, statesmen, and artists. Besides making engravings after Van Dyck's paintings, Vorsterman copied the works of Old Masters as well as the works of his contemporaries such as Adriaen Brouwer and Jacob Jordaens. He also taught engraving to several artists who copied paintings after Rubens, among them, Paulus Pontius. After the mid-1650s, Vorsterman produced less work. He lost his vision and suffered from depression. He died in poverty.[4]

Otto Vorsterman, painter, 17th century

There is very little information in Grove Art Online on Otto Vorsterman, only that he may have been a relative of Lucas Vorsterman, that he was married in 1632, and may have been the father of Jan Vorsterman, a landscape painter who worked in France and England.[5] It is noted that Lucas Vorsterman made an engraving of a flute player based on a painting by Otto Vorsterman which is cited in the catalogue raisonné of Vorsterman's work by Hymans.[6]

1816-1853

This is a scene of a flutist playing his flute (or fife) in the rain. The setting seems to be a city dock or harbor as he is seated on a bollard, and his umbrella is furled and it is leaning on a chain behind him. He faces the left and wears a top hat, a short-waisted jacket with tails, and narrow, horizontally striped trousers that have straps beneath his square-toed shoes. The rain pours down in diagonals against him, but he seems jaunty and unconcerned with the weather. Men and women with umbrellas hurry in the street behind him. A few buildings are in the background at the right and the rooflines of other city buildings can be seen in the distance. The sun, with a face, peeks over the clouds at the upper left. The flutist could almost be a figure out of a Dickens' novel. There is a wonderful economy of line in this print. The engraver is quite masterful at capturing the scene with as few strokes as possible.

The artist's monogram, HR, refers to Henry Ritter (1816-1853), a Canadian painter who studied in Germany. He was also a caricaturist and provided illustrations for the Düsseldorfer Monathefte (sometimes spelled as Monatshefte). This was a political-satirical periodical, edited by Lorenz Clasens, that was published monthly in 14 volumes from 1847-1861, to which many artists made contributions - including Clasens who was himself a painter and engraver.

This print has been cut from a publication with German text on the verso. It does in fact come from the Düsseldorfer Monathefte.[1] This image comes from a story told in rhyme called "The Dismal Dirge of Billiken and Nancy," which appeared in the first issue and then was continued in the following five monthly installments. Thus, the date of this image must be ca. 1847, the first year of the publication of this journal. Basically, it is a story told with humorous illustrations with short German and English verses printed next to or just beneath the images.

The story is this: Nancy, a "young girl" of thirty, is the only daughter of a rich London liquor merchant. Her father wishes her to marry his old friend, Tom Lanky, a hermit, who has a fortune in silver and gold. Nancy collapses in hysterics at this news and begs her father to let her marry his clerk, Mr. Billiken. She explained to her father that they have vowed to each other their eternal love and that Mr. Billiken will call upon her father the next day to ask for her hand in marriage. Her father is outraged and says she will marry Tom Lanky within two weeks, or he will shoot Mr. Billiken if she does not do as he wishes. Poor distraught Nancy takes a horse-drawn cab to Mr. Billiken's house and, when he returns home that evening, Mr. Billiken finds Nancy has died from drinking poison. He kisses her gently, then drinks the poison himself and the last verse says: "He drank all the cold poison / Like a true lover brave - / And Nancy and Billikens / Lie buried in one grave."

The Miller print, with Mr. Billiken sitting in the rain and playing his flute (or fife), appears in the fourth continuation of the story. In the facsimile edition, it appears on page [84]. Beneath his image is the verse, "He has sighed and he has moan'd / Full fifteen long years. / And the spirits of night heard / The vows, that he swears." Beneath this image is one of Nancy and Billiken kneeling and facing each other, holding hands, as they swear their love for each other until death.[2]

About the Artist

Henry Ritter, marine and genre painter, caricaturist, and illustrator, 1816-1853

Since this print, [Flute player in the rain], has German text on the verso, a search for the monogram at the lower right, HR, was made in the following reference: Franz Goldstein, Monogramm Lexicon….[3] A monogram very similar to that in the Miller print appears on p. 642 for Henry Ritter (1816-1853), a Canadian-born artist who studied in Germany. He is recorded as having been a caricaturist, a genre painter, a graphic artist and lithographer. He was born in Montreal, but traveled to Hamburg to study first with the painter and lithographer, Friedrich Carl Groeger, or Gröger (1766-1838). Then, he went to the Academy at Düsseldorf and studied with Karl Sohn (1805-1867), a history painter, portraitist, and etcher in aquatint, who was named a master and professor at the Düsseldorf Academy in 1838. He also studied with Rudolf Jordan (1810-1887), a landscapist, genre painter and engraver, who exhibited his work widely - in Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Vienna and Philadelphia. Jordan was a professor at Academies in Berlin, Dresden and Amsterdam, and he won gold medals for his work in Berlin in 1866, and in Vienna in 1873. Jordan's other students, besides Ritter, included B. Vautier, A. Kindler, and J. Geertz. Jordan engraved original genre scenes as well as those after contemporary masters. Besides being a genre painter and illustrator of Düsseldorfer Monathefte, Henry Ritter also provided illustrations for Washington Irving: Auswahl aus seinen Schriften (Washington Irving: Selections from his Writings) which was published in Leipzig in 1856 after Ritter's death. The selections included: "The Sea Voyage," "The Wife," "Rip van Winkle," "The Widow and her Son," "The Angler," "The Hunter's Meal," "The Devil and Tom Walker," and others.[4]

1573-1610

after a painting once attributed to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, painter and engraver, 1573-1610

This is a half-length portrait of a young recorder player. His torso is turned to the right, but he gazes directly at the viewer. His expression seems mournful or melancholy. His eyes are large, his hair is long, and the light coming from the right creates strong light and dark contrasts in his face, hair, and hands. He holds in his hands a recorder. He wears a mantle or cloak that falls in voluminous folds. There appears to be a tapestry in the foreground, but the background, an interior, is without detail. The simple composition and the dramatic lighting create a powerful image. The plate is framed by an etched "egg and dart" border.

This plate is included in Galerie du Palais Royal…[1] See vol. I (1786), in section "Ecole de Lombardie" under "Michel-ange Amerigi dit Le Caravage," no. 3 in index at front of vol. I, but there is no actual pagination in the book. Compared with the bound version, the Miller etching is equally as fine. The sheet size of the bound etching is only slightly larger by a half inch and a quarter inch, length and width, than the Miller version, and the dimensions of the plate impression are the same for each. The original painting on which the Miller etching was based (which may or may not be attributed now to Caravaggio) has yet to be located.

When this etching by Glairon-Mondet was made, the original painting was in the collection of Louis-Philippe-Joseph, duc d'Orléans (1747-1793). Known as Philippe Egalité, the duc d'Orléans was a cousin of Louis XVI; he died during the French Revolution. According to a book tracing the importation of paintings into England following the French Revolution, none of the Caravaggios in the Orléans collection entered English collections, though many other paintings in the public sale of the Orléans collection in 1798 in London at Bryan's Gallery and the Lyceum were acquired by English collectors.[2]

Though the original painting on which the Miller print was based has yet to be traced, a painting now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and attributed to an artist of the North Italian School, has a very similar sensibility. Entitled Boy with a Flageolet, and dated ca. 1650, it shows a boy holding a flageolet in a similar fashion to the boy holding a recorder in the Miller print, but he faces the opposite direction. (Prints are usually mirror images of the paintings on which they were modeled). He wears a blue coat over which is laid the large white collar of his shirt. It is tantalizing close to the image in the etching, but there are very slight differences between the painting and the print. The boy in the painting appears to wear a beret-style hat; his face is angled differently and he does not look at the viewer as does the boy in the etching; and, the fingers of his upper hand are positioned differently.

Despite these differences between the figures in the Ashmolean painting and the Miller print, the same boy may have been the artist's model in each work. (Perhaps the boy is a little older in the print, because the hands are more muscular.) If the print is reversed in a photo-editing software to match the orientation of the painting, the similarities in the two figures are striking. Note how the shape of the nose, the mouth, the square nails of his hands, the widely-spaced eyes, the oval face, and the narrow chin with an indentation beneath the bottom lip, are nearly identical in the two images.

The Ashmolean painting was at one time attributed to Caravaggio, as well as to Piazzetta, or French or Flemish followers of Caravaggio, and others. The catalogue entry for this work states that the "subject of pensive musicians was especially popular in the circles of Angelo Caroselli [1585-1652] and of Michelangelo Cerquozzi [1602-1660]."[3]

See Miller number 34/N, La Danse Flamande, an etching by Guttenberg after a painting by van Mol also from the collection of the duc d'Orléans, which was included in vol. II (1808) of the Galerie du Palais Royal… See another etching in the Miller collection, 602/N, by Bouillard after Titian, also from the collection of the duc d'Orléans, and published in Galerie du Palais Royal…, vol. II (1808). See 602/N also for a brief history of the dispersal and sale of the Orléans collection.

About the Artists

E.-J. Glairon-Mondet, engraver, active late 18th-early 19th century

E.-J. Glairon-Mondet was French engraver who worked in Paris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was a student of Jacques-Firmin Beauvarlet (1731-1797), a draughtsman, etcher, engraver, and publisher, who was named "Graveur du roi" and who was admitted to the Académie Royale in 1776. Glairon-Mondet engraved several plates for the Galerie du Palais Royal…, a collection of 355 etchings and engravings of paintings in the collection of the duc d'Orléans, a cousin of Louis XVI, who died during the French Revolution. The Galerie du Palais Royal… was published in three volumes from 1786 to 1808, and Glairon-Mondet produced for it this etching of a Flutist after a painting then attributed to Caravaggio (1573-1610), as well as etchings after a Self-Portrait by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609); Jupiter and Leda by Jacopo Tintoretto (1519-1594); and Appearance of Angels to Abraham by Alessandro Veronese (probably Alessandro Turchi, 1578-1649). Besides his work for the Galerie du Palais Royal…, Glairon-Mondet also etched or engraved paintings by the following artists: Le Danger du sommeil by Lagrenée (probably Louis-Jean-François, the elder, 1725-1805); L'Instruction villageoise, which was exhibited in the Salon of 1781, by Philibert-Louis Debucourt (1755-1832); Les Amants surpris by Dietrich (possibly Christian-Wilhelm-Ernst Dietrich, 1712-1774); and La conversation flamande by Jan le Ducq (1629/30-1676). Glairon-Mondet also provided etchings or engravings for a deluxe edition of the Oeuvres de Racine, which was published by Didot.[4]

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, painter and engraver, 1573-1610

Caravaggio was a well-known Italian painter and engraver who worked in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, whose work is characterized by chiaroscuro, a dramatic use of dark and light.

1678-1733

after a painting by Alexis Grimou, painter, 1678-1733

This is a beautiful half-length portrait of a boy in left profile who plays a recorder. He is posed against an open sky with a distant landscape seen at the lower left. Some foliage and tree branches are at the upper right. It was engraved by Bernard Lépicié (1698-1755), after a painting by Alexis Grimou (1678-1733), whose paintings often portray a single figure in profile and in a half-length pose as is seen here.

In 1716, Grimou did paint a work entitled Young Man Playing a Recorder which was reproduced in color on the cover of Figaro illustré 24(September 1906). N2.F5 Folio. This is a different painting than the one on which the Miller print was based. In this work, the young man sits in right profile against a very similar landscape. He wears an orange-colored jacket and breeches and a dark brown hat. His eyes, also brown as is his hair, are turned to the viewer as he holds the recorder in his hands. He does not play the recorder, however. He only holds it as if he is about to play. The recorder in the painting reproduced on the cover of Figaro illustré is very similar to that in the Miller print. There are some slight variations in the turnings of the two instruments, but they are very, very similar. The recorder can be seen fully in the painting.

The Lépicié print was included in The Pipers: An Exhibition of Engravings, Watercolors and Lithographs from the Dayton C. Miller Collection, Library of Congress, March 1977.

About the Artists

François-Bernard Lépicié, engraver, 1698-1755

François-Bernard Lépicié was a French engraver, writer and administrator at the Académie Royale, who was born in Paris in 1698, and who died in the same city in 1755. His name is given in Bénézit as Bernard François Lépicié, père, or the elder. He studied engraving with Jean Mariette (1660-1742), and Gaspard Duchange (1662-1757). Lépicié traveled to London before 1724 and made engravings after the works of Raphael at Hampton Court. He returned to Paris in 1724 and continued to make engravings after the works of painters in well-known collections, such as those in the collection of Pierre Crozat (1661-1740), one of the principal patrons of Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). Though Lépicié made engraved copies after the works by artists from earlier generations, such as Nicolas Largillière (1656-1746), Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743) and Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), he is most known for his reproductive engravings after Chardin (1699-1779) and his other contemporaries -- artists such as Jean-Baptiste Pater (1695-1736), Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766), and Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694-1752). After Lépicié was appointed Secrétaire Historiographe to the Académie Royale in 1737, he created fewer engravings and focused on his administrative responsibilities instead. He produced two books, Vies des premiers peintres du roi in 1752; and, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux du roi from 1752-1754.[1]

Alexis Grimou, painter, 1678-1733

Alexis Grimou was a French painter who was born in Argenteuil in 1678, and he died in Paris in 1733. He may have studied with François de Troy (1645-1730), who painted portraits of members of the French court and Parisian bourgeoisie. Grimou was especially influenced by 17th-century Dutch painters such as Rembrandt. His figures are characterized by relaxed, informal poses and attire. Many of Grimou's portraits show figures at half-length, often in profile, as is seen in the Miller print, Le Fluteur (The Flutist), which was copied after one of his paintings. Of anecdotal interest is that, in 1704, Grimou married the niece of Procope, the proprietor of the oldest restaurant in Paris. Founded in 1686, Le Procope was frequented by artists and intellectuals such as Voltaire, Diderot, and Benjamin Franklin. It still exists today.[2]

1610-1690

after a painting by David Teniers, the younger, painter and engraver, 1610-1690

This is an interior scene with a young boy seated at the left who plays a pipe with a flared bell while an old woman, seated at a table in the center, holds a paper in her hands and gazes at the boy. An old man, plate in hand, enters the doorway at the left background. The table at the right holds a pitcher and a glass; and, a piece of crockery is either attached to the wall beneath a shelf at the upper right, or it is falling from the shelf. In Nicholas S. Lander's Web site, Recorder Iconography, the instrument is identified as "a slender flared-bell pipe (flageolet or recorder)."[1]

This etching was included in The Pipers: An Exhibition of Engravings, Watercolors and Lithographs from the Dayton C. Miller Collection, Library of Congress, March 1977. See another example of this print by Le Bas in the Miller collection, 36/N. See also a large etching by Le Bas, after Teniers, The Temptation of St. Anthony, 76/Y.

About the Artists

Jacques-Philippe Le Bas, draughtsman, etcher, and engraver, 1707-1783

Jacques-Philippe Le Bas, a French draughtsman, etcher, and engraver, was born in Paris in 1707, and died in the same city in 1783, according to Bénézit. He was a student of Hérisset (probably Antoine Hérisset, an engraver, 1685-1769). Le Bas became an academician in 1734, and exhibited his work from 1737 to 1781. He engraved many subjects - religious, history, genre, portraits, topography, coats of arms, and landscapes.

David Teniers, the younger, painter and engraver, 1610-1690

David Teniers, the younger, was a well known 17th-century Flemish artist who was a genre painter and engraver. He was born in Antwerp in 1610 and died in Brussels in 1690. He was the eldest of four sons of David Teniers, the elder (1582-1649), a painter and engraver, with whom he first studied. Very little is known about the younger Teniers' early life. He was received as a master in the Antwerp guild of St. Luke in 1632-1633. In 1637, he married Anna Brueghel, daughter of Jan Brueghel of Velours, who brought wealth and, above all, a close friendship with Rubens, whose second wife, Hélène Fourment, was the godmother of their eldest son, David Teniers III. In 1644, David Teniers, the younger, was named dean of the guild of St. Luke. Teniers was known above all for his genre paintings, at first smokey tavern scenes in the1630s which closely resembled the work of Adriaen Brouwer (1605/06-1638). By the 1640s, he painted more open-air scenes of country life with peasants reveling at fairs, often with an inn in the background.

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm was named governor of the Low Countries in 1646 and he was a powerful protector to Teniers, who began working for the archduke in 1647. By 1651, the archduke appointed Teniers painter to the court, chamberlain, and curator of his painting gallery, which housed a magnificent collection. Teniers purchased Italian paintings from the collection of Charles I for the archduke's collection, and he painted at least eight different views of the archduke's galleries. Most importantly, Teniers produced a catalogue of the archduke's paintings which were copied by various engravers. He himself painted copies of many of the Italian paintings which were used as models for the engravers. The illustrated catalogue was published in 1660 under the title Theatrum Pictorium.

The archduke often sent the work of Teniers to other sovereigns and recommended his work to them. King Philip IV of Spain commissioned many paintings by Teniers, and Prince William II of Orange and Christina of Sweden were also great collectors of his paintings. Don Juan of Austria, the natural son of King Philip IV, succeeded Archduke Leopold Wilhelm as governor of the Low Countries from 1656 to 1659. Also an enthusiast of the work of Teniers, Don Juan confirmed all of his court positions and commissions and even became his student.

After 1650, Teniers left Antwerp for Brussels. In 1656, his wife Anna died but, in the same year, he married Isabelle de Fren, daughter of André de Fren, secretary to the Council of Brabant. In 1662, he bought from Jan-Baptist Broekoven and Hélène Fourment the chateau of Drij Toren (Three Towers), at Perk, near Vilvoorde, which he made his summer residence. In 1663, Teniers was ennobled and, in the same year he took an active part in the foundation of an art academy in Antwerp to which he was named its first director. Teniers, who died at age 80 in 1690, was a prolific painter. He produced perhaps over a thousand works, his late paintings being more pastoral and idyllic in nature. His second wife died in 1683, and the end of his life was troubled by illness and legal disputes within the family, which were not settled until after his death.[2]