Simon Frisius’ etching, “Forest landscape with ruins hidden behind trees”, 1613/14

Simon Frisius (aka Simon Wynhoutsz Frisius; Simon de Vries) (c.1580–1628)

“Forest landscape with ruin hidden behind trees” (aka “Boslandschap met ruïne verborgen achter bomen”), 1613/14, after Matthijs Bril (c.1550–83), published by Hendrick Hondius I (1573–1650) in the series of 27 plates (including the title plate), “Topographia Variarum Regionum” (Various topographical views) (1613/14).

The curator of the BM advises that the copy of the publication “Topographia Variarum Regionum” held by the museum consists of “a series of twenty-seven etchings by Frisius after Matthijs Bril (New Hollstein 123-150) of small landscapes, which was published in 1614 by Hendrick Hondius. One print after Joos van Lier has been added to the series. The prints are inlaid into double sheets and the series is bound in an album with a gold tooled vellum binding that seems to be seventeenth-century” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1947-0319-7).

See the list of prints in this publication at the Rijksmuseum:

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.453679; see also the title plate for the series at archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/mma_title_to_topographia_variarum_regionum_390778.

Etching on fine laid paper trimmed slightly irregularly along the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 10.7 x 15 cm.

Lettered below the image borderline: “Mabias bril inventor. Henricus hondius excudit.”
State i (of ii)

Hollstein 1-25 (after Matthijs Bril); New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 142.I (Simon Frisius); Hollstein 64-91 (under Simon Frisius).

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print:

(Transl.) “Two men are standing along a forest edge. They look at a ruin, half right, hidden behind the trees”

(http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.454729).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“View of a huge gnarled tree set before some ruins, figures in the foreground, after Matthijs Bril. 1613/1614”

(https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1947-0319-7-16).

Condition: well-printed impression with some areas showing wear to the printing plate, trimmed irregularly along the image borderline and laid onto a support sheet of millennium quality washi paper. There is a fracture in the upper left edge otherwise sheet is in excellent condition for its considerable age.

I am selling this small but remarkable etching executed by an artist famous for his amazing technical virtuosity in mimicking the attributes of engraved lines in his etchings—he even published manual for calligraphers executed entirely by etching but with the swelling and tapered lines of engraving—for the total cost of AU$262 (currently US$181.96/EUR160.42/GBP144.98 at the time of posting this) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this superb and seldom seen old-master print on the art market, 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