An extremely fine impression printed with plate tone and wiping scratches on paper with watermark Grape (Griffiths- Hartley 1), in the first state of two, before the addition of Le Blond’s address.

In good condition, apart two printer’s creases in the middle of the composition and another upper left in the white paper, trimmed within the platemark on the bottom.

Our impression is the one exhibited at the British Museum in 1997 and published in the catalogue by Griffiths and Hartley.

The etching is related to a fine drawing in pen, washed in blue, kept at the Stockholm National Museum (Inv. 81/1874, No. 88).

The print belongs to a series of four sheets, depicting female figures. These graceful gardeners testify the taste and the tradition of the late ‘500 and early ‘600 of representing the various trades and occupations of life. According to the most recent literature, (Griffiths-Hartley, p. 113), the artist, beyond the tradition and inspired by the ancient world, reaches highly refined effects. Our hortulana, with her elegant gait, announces the world of the court festivals. Wearing stylish shoes, she carries on her head a basin which evokes the Mannerism and the taste of the Fontainebleau school.

References:

Alexandre-Pierre François Robert-Dumesnil, Le Peintre-graveur français, ou catalogue raisonné des stampe gravée par les peintres et les dessinateurs de l’école française, vol. V, Paris, 1841, pp. 91- 97 and vol. 11, Paris 1871, pp. 9-12

Nicole Walch, Die Radierungen des Jacques Bellange. Chronologie und kritischer Katalog, München, 1971

Amy N. Worthen-Sue Welsh Reed, The Etchings of Jacques Bellange, catalogue of the exhibition, Des Moines Art Center – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Boston, 1975

Ger Luiten, La Bella Maniera. Druckgraphik des Manierismus aus Sammlung Georg Baselitz, Bern-Berlin, 1994, pp. 251-265

Paulette Choné, Jacques Bellange, in Allgemeines Künstler Lexikon, vol. 8, München – Leipzig, 1994, pp. 434-437

Antony Griffiths-Craig Hartley, Jacques Bellange, ca. 1575-1616. Printmaker of Lorraine, catalogue of the exhibition, British Museum, London, 1997

Rainer Michael Mason Le Beau Style, 1520-1620. Gravures maniéristes de la collection Georg Baseliz, Köln, 2001, pp. 260-269

Jacques Thuillier, Jacques Bellange, catalogue of the exhibition, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, 2001

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