Anthonie Waterloo’s etching, “Landscape with Pan and Syrinx”, 1640–90

Anthonie Waterloo (aka Antoni Waterlo) (1609–1690)

“Landscape with Pan and Syrinx” (TIB title) (aka “Pan et Syrinx”), 1640–90, plate 4 from a series of six upright landscapes with scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Etching on laid paper lined onto a conservator’s support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 40.2 x 26.1 cm; (plate) 29.7 x 24.7 cm; (image borderline) 29.2 x 24.2 cm

Inscribed on the plate: (upper left) "4" / "AW. in. et f."; (lower right) "A.W.f."

State i (of iii) Note: the inscriptions at the upper-left are erased in state ii. The TIB (Vol. 2, Commentary, Part 1) offers a description of the Basan edition of the third state; see pp. 157–8. As TIB does not advise that the erased inscriptions of state ii were reintroduced in the Basan edition, I assume that this impression is from the first state.

TIB 2 (2).128 (130) (Walter L Strauss, Mark Carter Leach & Peter Morse [eds.] 1978, “The Illustrated Bartsch: Netherlandish Artists”, vol.2, p.119); Hollstein 128.I (Hollstein, F W H 1949, “Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts c.1450-1700”, Amsterdam,); Bartsch II.130.128 (Adam Bartsch 1803, “Le Peintre graveur”, 21 vols, Vienna)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Plate 4: Pan and Syrinx; Syrinx crossing a pond towards the reeds at far left as she is pursued by the half-man, half-goat figure of Pan at centre; from a series of six plates.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1627837&partId=1&searchText=Waterloo+pan+syrinx&page=1)

Condition: first state, lifetime impression, richly inked and well-printed impression in museum quality condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions or significant stains and handling marks). The sheet is laid upon a support sheet of washi paper.

I am selling this superb impression by Waterloo—one of the well-known masters from the 17th century—for the total cost of AU$398 (currently US$299.16/EUR254/GBP223.47 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this large, lifetime/first state, rare and very beautiful etching, 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

In my earlier explanation about the three states of this print, I argue that this impression is from the first state as it shows the inscriptions at top left that are erased in the later states.

Although this argument may seem like an “open-and-shut” case in clarifying that this impression is from the first state, sadly to my mind it is not. My concern has to do with the width of the chain-lines that I can see when I hold the print up to the light. Of course all prints pulled before 1755 must have these lines, because wove paper (i.e. paper that does not have chain-lines) had not been invented, but there are many factors involved in reading the age of paper that can be determined by these lines. For example, later laid paper was manufactured with less thickening at the edges of the chain-lines when compared to early papers which show an accumulation of paper pulp at the lines.

Regarding the third-state Basan edition of “Eighty-Eight Landscapes of Different Sizes” printed on forty-nine sheets published in 1776/7, most of the papers on which this edition were printed had chain-lines averaging 31 millimetres apart with the smallest width between the lines averaging 29 millimetres (see TIB, Vol. 2, Commentary, Part 1, pp. xvii). Herein lies my conundrum: this impression is printed on paper with chain lines averaging 30 millimetres, suggesting that the impression may be from the Basan edition.