Johannes Visscher’s engraving after Nicolaes Berchem, “Rustic landscape with a peasant girl milking a goat”, c.1660

Johannes Visscher (aka Jan de Visscher) (1633–c.1692)

“Rustic landscape with a peasant girl milking a goat”, c.1660, after Nicolaes Berchem (1621/22–1683), published by Nicolaes Visscher II (1649–1702)

Engraving with etching on fine laid paper trimmed along the image borderline (Note: the BM offers the following details of the missing text lines that would have been below the image borderline: "Joannes de Vißcher fecit", centre "Nicolaus P. Berchem pinxit" and at right "Nicolaus Visscher excudit". With two columns of Latin text, each two lines "Aspice ut obsequio ... parere negabis?".)

Size: (sheet) 24 x 32.5 cm

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Rustic landscape with a peasant girl milking a goat with a donkey and sleeping dog nearby; after Berchem Engraving and etching” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1518325&partId=1)

Hollstein 104.III (F W H Hollstein 1949, “Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts c.1450-1700”, Amsterdam)

Condition: crisp impression trimmed to a narrow margin around the image borderline. The sheet is lightly age-toned (i.e. browned) with remnants of old mounting (verso) and an inscription by an early collector with the date 1793; otherwise the sheet is in good condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing).

I am selling this rare engraving (the British Museum is the only institution that I could find another copy) for the total cost of AU$285 including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this exceptionally fine example of cross hatching and the effects of moiré patterns caused close angling and alignment of lines in cross hatching, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print featured for many years in my lectures on cross-hatching and the perils of moiré effects. My argument in these lectures was that if an artist used parallel strokes laid very close together and then overlaid these aligned marks with another set of parallel strokes set at a very close angle to the underlying layer (i.e. cross hatching) then the phenomenon of seeing moiré patterns is an inevitable outcome. I would then demonstrate how these patterns disappear when the angle of the cross hatching is increased.

Now that I look at this print with fresh eyes I wonder if the moiré patterns are really a problem or if they add another dimension to the image. Certainly, in the sky the visual noise created by the patterns is distracting, as my eye keeps wanting to look at the wavy line patterns. If I ignore seeing them as problem, however, I can entertain the idea that they project the suggestion of uneasiness to the scene—a restless feeling somewhat enhanced by the harsh contrasts of lights and darks portraying the young lady milking a goat in the foreground.