The Etchings of Claude Lorrain

While long neglected compared with his paintings, in the 17th century, the etchings of Claude Gellee (1600-1682), called Claude Lorrain,
are rivaled only by those of Rembrandt.
Here are twenty-seven of these prints, in their likely chronological order (i.e., by their order in the catalogue raisonné of Lino Mannocci).
These are high-resolution scans; a fast connection is recommended.
(While I set the browser display to a width of 900 pixels, if you zoom in (cmd= on Apple computers)
you will get much higher resolution.)

Le Patre et la bergere
Les Deux Paysages
L'Apparition
La Tempete
Les Quatre Chevres
Les Trois Chevres
Les Quatre Chevres + Les Trois Chevres
La Fuite en Egypte
Scene de brigands
La Danse au bord de l'eau
L'Enlevement d'Europe
Le Soleil levant
Le Passage du gue
Le Troupeau a l'abreuvoir
Le Campo Vaccino
Le Campo Vaccino (counterproof)
Le Bouvier
Le Danse sous les arbres
Le Depart pour les champs
Le Naufrage
Le Dessinateur
Le Port de mer au fanal
Le Pont de bois
Le Port de Mer a la Grosse Tour
Le Troupeau en marche par un temps orageux
Le Berger et Bergere Conversant
Mercure et Argus
Le Temps, Apollon et les Saisons
Le Chevrier

References:
Mannocci, Lino, The Etchings of Claude Lorrain, Yale University Press, (1988).
Reed, S.W. and Wallace, R. Italian Etchers of the Renaissance & Baroque (Boston 1989).

This article of mine has some background on Claude and Dughet

A book on Claude's etchings is also available:
Ink and Light: The Influence of Claude Lorrain's Etchings on England

The Etchings of Gaspard Dughet

Another great 17th century landscape painter who also made etchings was Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675).
His easel paintings are in museums worldwide, but some of his finest works are frescoes on the walls of Italian Palazzi,
e.g. the Palazzo Colonna, with its "Dughet Room".
His etchings are often overlooked, since he did only a few, but those few are superb.
Four of his etchings are in a rectangular format. Here they are:

Landscape with Figures
Mountainous Landscape
River Landscape with Fishermen
Landscape with a Boatman

These images have a breezy openness and an electric vitality which is very different from Claude's serenity.
I think that "Landscape with Figures" and "Mountainous Landscape" are wonderful etchings which deserve
wider recognition. I'm especially fond of "Mountainous Landscape". (See the book by Reed & Wallace cited above
for an appreciation of "Landscape with Figures".)

Another four etchings are in a circular format. Here they are:

Landscape with man carrying a barrel
Landscape with Two Seated Men
Landscape with Sailboat
Landscape with a Traveler

The circular etchings are in general more tranquil than the rectangular ones.

The literature lists only these eight etchings by Dughet (though there are innumerable engravings by others
reproducing his paintings). But this may be another: Roman Landscape with Fishermen on a Riverbank.
The setting seems to be Tivoli and the falls of the river Teveroni, a scene Dughet often painted. This engraving
is identified by a monogram thought to be used by Dughet. I don't know if this rare impression is unique.

Rome in the 16th Century

A century before Claude, Neatherlandish artists were fascinated by the city of Rome and its ruins. Here is a print from 1550 showing the little island, "Tiber Island", and the bridge connecting it to the mainland, built by Lucius Fabricius in 62 BCE. In the middle ages it was called the "Four Heads Bridge" (Ponte Quattro Capi) because of two four-headed figures on the bridge balusters. The bridge connects to the city in the vicinity of the Jewish Ghetto.

Tiber Island and the "Pontis nunc quatuor Capitum".


Jacob van Ruisdael

The Dutch painter Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682) also did a small number of exquisite prints --
we only know of thirteen -- five from single impressions. This is one of the most celebrated,
``Grainfield at the Edge of a Wood'', done when Ruisdael was only 20. (The British painter John Constable
was so fond of this print that in 1818 he made an incredibly exact pen & ink copy of it.)
Such north-European landscapes have a very different feel from the Italian vistas, but as with Claude,
the effects of light are paramount in Ruisdael's works.