Lambrecht Hopfer’s etching after Albrecht Dürer, “The Flagellation”

Lambrecht Hopfer (aka Lambert Hopfer) (active c.1525–50)

“The Flagellation”, c.1530 (BM c.1520–50), after Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) engraving from the “Small Passion” series

Etching on fine laid paper printed in a brown-black ink with small margins and stamped (verso) with the collector’s mark “Graphischen Sammlung Muchen’ (Lugt 1614)

Size: (sheet) 15 x 9.8 cm; (plate) 13.9 x 8.8 cm

Incised with the Funck number “197” (certifying that this was from the early 17^th century David Funck, Nuremberg, edition) at the lower left and with the artist’s monogram on a tablet at the upper right corner.

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“The Flagellation; after Dürer (Meder 8); Christ tied to the column at centre, facing left; two henchmen armed with a scourge and bundle of twigs at left and r; from a series of fifteen etchings after Dürer's Small Passion.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1521076&partId=1&searchText=Hopfer&page=3)

Hollstein 7.I (Hollstein, F W H, “German engravings, etchings and woodcuts c.1400-1700”, Amsterdam, 1954); Bartsch VIII.527.7 (Bartsch, Adam, “Le Peintre graveur”, 21 vols, Vienna, 1803)

Condition: a superb, richly inked and crisp impression with small margins. This is a print of the utmost rarity and in near faultless condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, abrasions, stains, folds or foxing). There is a collector’s stamp “Graphischen Sammlung Muchen’ (Lugt 1614) and other collectors’ notations (verso).

I am selling this remarkable print from the son of the acclaimed first printmaker to create an etching (Daniel Hopfer), for a total cost of AU$676 (currently US$501.48/EUR472.05/GBP403.57 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you wish to purchase this stunningly beautiful and rare print from the Renaissance era, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Seldom do rare prints like this one come onto the market.

Even rarer is to find an impression that is virtually faultless, in terms having no stains, abrasions, tears, losses, worm holes, folds, or foxing. Even more outstanding is that the line work in this impression is crisp with very little wear. This crispness to the line work is surprising when considering that this print is from an iron plate and that iron plates rust and this corrosion will feature in later prints.

Beyond the superbly fresh condition of this impression, what makes the print rare from a historical standpoint is that it is one of the first etchings ever made—mindful that Lambrecht is the son of Daniel Hopfer who history accredits with having made the first iron etching. What is also fascinating is that it reproduces a fellow contemporary printmaker’s engraving from the time: the grand master, Albrecht Dürer.