Johann Lorenz Haid’s mezzotint of a young girl holding a brace of field larks, c.1750, after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta

Johann Lorenz Haid (1702–1750)

“Girl holding a brace of field larks” (descriptive title only), c.1750, after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682–1754), published with privilege (inscribed on plate as “Sacri Romani Imperii Vicaratius”) by Johann Christian Leopold (1699–1755) in Augsburg.

Mezzotint on laid paper, trimmed along the platemark and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 38.6 x 27.5 cm; (image borderline) 37.5 x 27.1 cm

Inscribed on plate below the image borderline: (left) “Ioh. Baptista Piazzetta / Venetus delineavit”; (left of centre) “Lorenz Haid / sculpsit”; (centre) “Cum Gratia et Privilegio Sacri Romani / Imperii Vicariatus.”; (right) “Iohann Christian Leopold excudit / Augustae Vindelicorum”

Condition: richly inked and well-printed impression with many (almost invisible) restorations, trimmed along the platemark and backed with a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this spectacular mezzotint (with MANY almost invisible restorations) for the total cost of AU$216 (currently US$163.80/EUR135.02/GBP118.89 at the time of posting this print) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this rare—so rare that the neither the British Museum nor the Rijksmuseum hold a copy—large and luminously glowing old-master print, 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

Only when the long and labour intensive process of making a mezzotint is understood (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezzotint) can the skill and discipline required to execute this tour de force masterwork be fully appreciated. Interestingly, Haid’s teacher was the great mezzotinter, Johann Christian Rugendas (1708–1781), and the leaning of Rugendas towards theatrical lighting (see my earlier post showcasing Rugendas’ prints: http://www.printsandprinciples.com/2017/02/johann-christian-rugendas-mezzotint.html) seems to have been adopted by his pupil. There is a significant difference, nevertheless, in both artists’ approaches to mezzotint. Rugendas tends to outline his subjects whereas Haid relies on careful tonal phrasing to define his forms. For example, note how Haid has very subtly suggested reflected light in the shadow cast by girl’s hat on her forehead. By contrast, Rugendas uses tone in flat patterns that the eye reads as spatial planes.

Regarding the subject of this print, I believe that the portrayed young girl’s name may be “Rosa.” My attribution of this name for the girl is based on a chalk drawing by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta—upon whom this print is after—of a girl with similar facial features and dressed in almost the same clothes; see “A Portrait of Rosa with a Shoulder Stick”, c. 1735, in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art: http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1931.59?f%5B0%5D=field_artist:Giovanni%20Battista%20Piazzetta%20(Italian,%201682-1754)