Christian Morgenstern’s etching, “The Two Tyroleans in the Gorge”, 1843

Christian Morgenstern (aka Christian Ernst Bernhard Morgenstern) (1805–1867

“The Two Tyroleans in the Gorge” (Die beiden Tiroler in der Felsschlucht), 1843, published for the album of the “Münchener Radirvereins Geätzt” by Radir-Club München (fl.1840), with the publisher’s oval blind-stamp featuring a sailing ship at lower centre.

Etching (with drypoint at the upper-right corner) on chine collé on heavy wove paper with the publisher’s blind-stamp (not in Lugt) at lower centre.

Size: (sheet) 24.5 x 30.1 cm; (plate) 14.6 x 18 cm; (chine collé) 13.6 x 16.9 cm; (image borderline) 12.7 x 16.2 cm.

Inscribed on plate below the image borderline: (left) “Ch”; (right in reverse) “Chr Morgen * v. Hamburg 1843”.

Andresen 3 (Andreas Andresen 1867, “Der Deutschen Maler-Radierer des 19 Jahrhunderts”, Leipzig, Weigel, p. 245, cat. no. 3 [see: https://diglib.tugraz.at/download.php?id=5bb225107b4bd&location]).

Andresen (1867) offers the following description of this print:

(Transl.) “Wild, partly overgrown rocks rise to the left and hang over a stony path on which two Tyroleans, one with [a pack] behind his back, are walking. The right side of the [composition] is blocked by a boulder on which several trees stand[.] A stream flows around its base towards the lower right corner where it forms a small fall. There are deep, almost black shadows in the foreground” (p. 245).

Andresen also advises that the portrayed scene is a part of the “Zemmgrunde” (Zemmgrund valley) which I understand is at a higher altitude but close to Mayrhofen situated in the Zillertal (Ziller) river valley in the Austrian state of Tyrol (op. cit.).

See also the description of this print offered by the British Museum:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1851-0503-7.

Condition: richly inked and well-printed impression with wide margins, laid upon an archival support sheet of millennium quality washi paper. Beyond a spot of thinness verso, the sheet is in excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, significant stains, foxing or signs of handling.

I am selling this marvellously dramatic landscape etching that seems to glow with the strong contrasts of shadow and raking light, for the total cost of AU$238 (currently US$183.44/EUR151.80/GBP135.05 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) 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 purchasing this closely observed and sensitively rendered etching showing two travellers walking beside a stream in a rocky gorge, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print is available for purchase

Bernard-Romain Julien’s crayon-manner lithograph, “Étude au Crayon Blanc, No. 23 (Conquistador)”, c1845

Bernard-Romain Julien (1802–1871)

“Étude au Crayon Blanc, No. 23 (Conquistador)”, c1845 (based on the address of the publishers who were active in Place de la Bourse, Paris, in 1845), illustration (plate 23) to Julien’s drawing course, “Cours de Dessin”, printed and published by Aubert & Cie (fl.c1830s–1880s) in Paris.

Crayon-manner lithograph printed in black and white ink on a cool grey wove paper with full margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 48.2 x 31.4 cm.

Inscribed on plate: (lower left) “Chez Aubert, Pl. de la Bourse.” (lower centre) “ÉTUDE AU CRAYON BLANC No. 23. / Lithographiée par Julien.”; (lower right) “Imp. d’Aubert & Cie.”

Condition: strong impression with full margins as published. Beyond a few dots and minor bumps to the edges, the sheet is in a good condition for its age with no tears, holes, abrasions, losses or significant stains.

I am selling this large and exceptionally beautiful (and rare!) crayon-manner lithograph by one of the most famous of 19^th century artists involved in creating academic studies for students to copy, for the total cost of AU$235 (currently US$181.10/EUR149.86/GBP133.33 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) 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 purchasing this exquisite lithograph exhibiting the highest order of skill, 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

Benigno Bossi’s etchings: “Portrait of a Man Facing Right”, 1773; “Portrait of a Young Girl Wearing a Scarf”, 1783

Benigno Bossi (1727–1792)

Two etchings with dot-roulette printed in sanguine coloured ink on laid paper

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LEFT

“Portrait of a Man Facing Right” (descriptive title), 1773, plate 28 from the series of 49 plates (including the frontispiece and antiporta), “Raccolta di teste inventate, disegnate e incise da B. Bossi” (Transl. “Collection of heads created, drawn, and engraved by Benigno Bossi”), published by Gioachino Bettalli and C Cont.a of Capello (as inscribed on the title plate). There is a preliminary drawing for this print held in the Museo Glauco Lombardi (Parma).

Size: (sheet) 19.5 x 15.8 cm; (plate) 12.7 x 10.2 cm; (image borderline) 11.8 x 9.3 cm

Inscribed: (upper right) “28”; (lower left) “Benigno Bossi In. f. Parma 1773”

LeBlanc 64-103; Museo Glauco Lombardi, Parma, inv. no. 7232 (etching); F Sandrini, ‎L F Schianchi & ‎P Sivieri 2003, “Museo Glauco Lombardi: Maria Luigia e Napoleone”, p. 117 (lo splendido Ritratto virile a sanguigna); see also “The Mark J. Millard Architectural Collection: Italian and Spanish books, fifteenth through nineteenth centuries”, National Gallery of Art, 2000, p.77f.

RIGHT

“Portrait of a Young Girl Wearing a Scarf” (descriptive title), 1783, plate 37 from the series, “Raccolta di teste inventate, disegnate e incise da B. Bossi”, published by Gioachino Bettalli and C Cont.a of Capello.

Size: (sheet) 12 x 10.4 cm; (plate) 6.6 x 6.8 cm; (image borderline) 5.6 x 6.2 cm

Inscribed: (upper right) “37”; (lower left) “Bossi In. f. 1783”

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Condition: richly inked and well-printed impressions with generous margins and in an excellent condition (i.e., there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, losses, significant stains or signs of handling).

I am selling this pair of remarkably sensitive studies, for the total cost of AU$428 for the pair (currently US$331.99/EU273.39/GBP242.77 at the time of posting this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) 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 purchasing this pair of small and very beautiful etchings, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

What I find interesting about this pair of etchings is that the left print was executed midway through Bossi’s artistic career, whereas the right one was executed ten years later and may be viewed as exemplifying his fully matured style.

From my reading of his earlier stylistic leanings (as exemplified by the left print), Bossi had initially adopted a rather formulaic style involving squiggles and evenly spaced return-strokes aligned at much the same angle. By contrast, his mature style (as exemplified by the right print), reveals that Bossi had moved away from his earlier faux boldness to a more intuitively exploratory approach involving sensitive strokes laid as mimetic equivalents for the subject’s physical attributes—dots to connote flesh, thick lines to suggest coarse fabric and fine lines to signify soft fabric. Essentially, Bossi had shifted in his way of looking from a singular vision where style was more important than the portrayed subject (the left print) to a more adaptive vision when the artist’s response to the subject was more important than style (the right print).

Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder’s woodcut, “Swiss Infantry in Battle”, c1548

Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder (1490–1556)

“Swiss Infantry in Battle” (descriptive title only), c1548, woodcut illustration published in 1548 in Zurich in Johann Stumpf’s (1500–1578) account of Swiss history, “Gemeiner loblicher Eydgnoschafft Stetten, Landen vnd Völckeren Chronick wirdiger Thaaten Beschreybung: hieriñ wirt auch die Gelegenheit der gantzen Europe: item ein kurtzuer griffne Chronica Germanie oder Teütschlands: in sonders aber ein fleyssige histori vnd ordenliche Beschreybung Gallie oder Franckrychs fürgestellt: darauff deñ obgedachte der Eydgnoschafft Beschreybung volget ...”, p. 154 (and employed as an illustration to other pages in the same publication).

Archive.org offers an online view of this print in its context in the book: https://archive.org/details/gemeinerlobliche01stum/page/n333/mode/2up.

Woodcut on laid paper trimmed around the image borderline with letterpress text verso.

Size: (sheet/image borderline) 7.6 x 16.6 cm.

Condition: richly inked early/lifetime impression (based on the line quality showing minimal wear to the printing plate). Beyond remnants of mounting verso, the sheet is in near faultless condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing.

I am selling this superb woodcut of historical importance showing 16^th century Swiss infantrymen in battle with pikes, longswords and halberds, for a total cost of AU$252 (currently US$195.61/EUR160.95/GBP143.50 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) 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 purchasing this small but graphically arresting early woodcut executed with amazing skill, 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

John Sell Cotman’s soft ground etching, “Conway Castle. N. Wales”, 1838

John Sell Cotman (1782–1842)

“Conway Castle. N. Wales”, 1838, plate 31 from the series of forty-nine plates, “Liber Studiorum”, published in London in 1838 by Henry George Bohn (1795/6–1884) in "Liber Studiorum: A Series of Sketches and Studies by John Sell Cotman, Esp."

Soft-ground etching with dot roulette on cream wove paper with wide margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 45.7 x 30.5 cm; (plate) 18.8 x 12.6 cm.

Inscribed on plate below the image: (left of centre) " Conway Castle. N. Wales."; (right) "J.S.Cotman.”

Numbered on plate: (upper right corner) "31."

Popham 324 (Arthur Ewart Popham 1922, "The Etchings of John Sell Cotman." Print Collector's Quarterly, vol. 9, p. 271, cat. no. 324).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Plate 31. View of a round tower of Conw[a]y Castle, projecting outward from a circular crenellated wall; ruined section of interior walls in foreground at a lower level, and adjacent wall with two arched openings overgrown with vegetation at right; three flying birds approaching from shrubs at right” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1859-0528-177).

See also the descriptions offered by The Tate, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Fine Art Museums of San Francisco—the latter offers the interesting insight that the crumbled ruins in the foreground were once a “tall dungeon.”

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/cotman-conway-castle-north-wales-t11517;

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/789451;

https://art.famsf.org/john-sell-cotman/conway-castle-n-wales-plate-31-liber-studiorum.

Condition: faultless impression in pristine condition (i.e., there are no tears, holes, folds, losses, abrasions, stains, foxing or signs of handling) with full margins as published.

I am selling this extraordinarily well preserved and rare soft-ground etching by one of the acknowledged masters of the English landscape, for a total cost of AU$320 (currently US$248.43/EUR203.34/GBP181.62 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) 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 purchasing this wonderful worm’s-eye view of Conway Castle—a view that the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco describes as a “story book view”—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.