Nicolas Dufour’s etching, “Night View of the Meuse with Fishermen”, c1760, after Franz Edmund Weirotter

Nicolas Dufour (aka Pierre Charles Nicolas Dufour; Nicolas du Four) (1725–c1818)

“Night View of the Meuse with Fishermen” (aka “Troisieme Vue sur la Meuse”; “IIIème vue sur la Meuse”; “Nachtelijk zicht op de Maas met vissers”), c1770, plate 3 from a series of 4 prints, after a painting by Franz Edmund Weirotter (1733–1771), published in Paris in c1770 by Pierre-François Basan (1723–1797).

Etching on fine laid paper trimmed with a small margin around the image borderline with a flattened publication fold and a faded collector’s inscription (initials) at lower right.

Size: (sheet) 30.6 x 38.3 cm; (plate) 30 x 37.9 cm; (image borderline) 26.5 x 36.6 cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “Veirotter Pinxit”; (centre) “III^ème Vue sur la Meuse./ A Paris ches Basan.”; (right) “N. du Four Sculp.”

IFF 3 (Jean Adhémar & Jacques Lethève 1954, “Inventaire du Fonds Français après 1800”, vol. 8, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, p. 138, cat. no. 3).

The Rijksmuseum offers a description of this print: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.106856.

The Harvard Art Museums hold the fourth print in Dufour’s series after Weirotter; see https://hvrd.art/o/239039.

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression with small margins around he image borderline. The original vertical publication crease has been flattened, but is still visible; otherwise, the sheet is in a remarkable condition for its considerable age with no tears, holes, significant stains or foxing.

I am selling this sensitively executed etching of a rarely portrayed night-time scene of fishermen and their fishing practices on the Meuse (Maas) river in the 1700s—note the distant windmill suggesting that the scene is in the Netherlands—for AU$320 in total (currently US$235.80/EUR199.39/GBP171.12 at the time of posting 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 purchasing this exceptionally delicate rendering of evening, 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