Roelant Roghman’s etching, “River and Rocks”, 1650–83

Roelant Roghman (aka Roeland Roghman) (c1620–1686)

“River and Rocks” (Le quartier de rocher) (TIB title), 1650–83, plate 2 from the series of eight plates, “Views of Italy” (TIB) (aka “Tyrolean landscapes” [Rijksmuseum]), published in Augsburg in the edition by Melchior Küsel (1626-83) or the later edition by Jeremias Wolff (1663–1724). (Note: I am unable to determine which edition this impression is from because the text line with the critical inscribed plate number that acts as a guide to the edition has been trimmed off but the impression is very crisp suggesting an early printing.)

Etching on fine laid paper trimmed unevenly along the image borderline and lined with a support sheet.

Size: (support-sheet) 31 x 40.8 cm; (unevenly trimmed sheet) 12.9 x 24.9 cm

Condition: a crisp and well-inked impression, trimmed along the image borderline and re-margined on a support sheet. The print is in excellent condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing).

TIB 5 (4).26 (32) (Walter L Strauss & Franklin Robinson [Eds.] 1979, “The Illustrated Bartsch”, vol. 5, p. 39); Bartsch IV.32.26; Hollstein 26

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print:

“View of a mountain landscape with rocks in Tyrol. In the foreground two shepherds with a dog. On the water a goat and in the background a horse-drawn full load cart. Print from a series of eight prints with Tyrolean landscapes.” (http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.480369); see also the description at the British Museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1623746&partId=1&searchText=roghman+mountain&page=1

See auction estimates for Roghman’s etchings: https://www.invaluable.com/artist/roghman-roelandt-8ychnlnnco/sold-at-auction-prices/

I am selling this superb impression of an extremely rare print from the time of Rembrandt—Roghman was even one of Rembrandt’s good friends—for AU$338 (currently US$269.32/EUR220.66/GBP195.41 at the time of posting this listing). Postage for this print is extra and will be the actual/true cost. 

If you are interested in purchasing this spectacular etching—one of Roghman’s masterpieces—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

One of the interesting aspects of scanning prints like this is that tiny details are revealed that might otherwise go unnoticed. For instance, the seated figure featured in the foreground at right is not just compositional staffage (i.e. a figure sitting there for no deep and meaningful reason). This figure is an artist drawing! Now that I see what the figure is “doing” the meaning of the whole composition changes. I now see the image in terms of being like a visual essay expressing Roghman’s vision of the sublime rather than “just another rocky landscape.” My change in thinking is generated by the diminutive size of the artist compared to the gargantuan boulder that the artist faces and what seems to me to be a very intentional arrangement of the composition to connote the vastness of space of which the figure is tiny part. The more that I look at the other details the more that this realisation grows. Roghman is engaging in a deep contemplation of how tiny mankind is in the big picture of the natural world: the wilderness. Note, for example, the difference in scale between the horse-drawn cart in the centre of the composition—the middle distance—and the surrounding trees in the same area.