Aegidius Sadeler II’s engraving, “View of a wooden house near Madrid”, c1600

Aegidius Sadeler II (aka Gillis Sadeler; Egidius Sadeler; Ægedius Sadeler) (c1570–1629)

“View of a wooden house near Madrid” (aka “Vue d’un e maison de bois près Madrid” [title on plate in state iv]; “View of a Village” [TIB title]; “Inn with Travellers” [Rijksmuseum title]), c1600–1610, after a drawing by Pieter Stevens II (c1567–c1624), published by Aegidus Sadeler and later by Marco Sadeler (fl.1660s).

Engraving and etching on laid paper with narrow margins around the platemark.

Size: (sheet) 17.5 x 25.8 cm; (plate) 17 x 25.5 cm; (Image borderline) 15.6 x 25.1 cm

Inscribed on plate below the image borderline: (left) “Cum Priuil S: C: May: tis. / Marco Sadeler excudit.”; (right) “Petrus Stephani Inuet: / Egidius Sadeler excud:”

State ii (of iv) Lifetime impression before the erasure of the publication details and the inscription, “Gravé par Sadeler”, signifying the third state and addition of the title, “Vue d’un e maison de bois près Madrid”, and, “A Paris chés Daumont”, of the final state.

TIB 1997 7201.273 S2 (Isabelle de Ramaix, “The Illustrated Bartsch”, vol. 72, Part 2, Supplement, p. 76); Hollstein 1980, vol. 21, no. 264

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print:

(transl.) “An inn with a wooden post with a cross on the left. In the foreground travelers. The second print of an eight-part series with Bohemian landscapes.” (http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.167972)

Condition: well-printed lifetime impression with narrow margins in excellent condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing).

I am selling this fascinating study of everyday activities in a small town on the outscirts of Madrid by one of the most famous of the old masters for AU$343 (currently US$255.94/EUR219.13/GBP194.72 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in acquiring this luminous landscape that I see as facetted with beams of light like a jewel, 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

Mindful that the title of this print advises that the featured subject is a wooden house near Madrid, I have only seen El Greco’s “View of Toledo” (executed at much the same time as the print) to verify whether Sadeler’s representation of a town outside of Madrid might look like this at the beginning of the 1600s. Of course my cook will argue with me that Toledo is a full hour and two minutes by train away from Madrid, and thus falls outside the description, “near Madrid”.  Although my cook’s argument may be a very inconvenient truth, there is still a connection that I see between El Greco’s famous painting and the way that Sadeler’s town is portrayed and it is all about light. Essentially, both compositions are illuminated not by an external light cast from the heavens but rather an INTERNAL light that is illuminating them. In the case of Sadeler’s landscape, the beams of sunlight in the foreground are treated in a way to suggest the facetted planes of a gemstone and the juxtaposition of strong lights and darks through the rest of the scene resonates with the same vision of the lively light within a jewel.