Claude Lorrain’s etching, “Le Pont de Bois”, c1640

Claude Lorrain (aka Claude Gellée, Claude; Claude Le Lorrain; Claudio di Lorena) (1600–1682)

“Le Pont de Bois” (aka “The Wooden Bridge”; “Rebecca and Eliezer”], c1640 (1638–41) , plate 10 (as numbered in the plate).. This impression is from McCreery’s 1816 edition of “200 Etchings” printed from the original plate.

Marcel Roethlisberger (1968) in his catalogue raisonné, “Claude Lorrain The Drawings” (Berkeley, University of California Press), vol. 1 (text), proposes the following explanation regarding the portrayed subject of this etching: “The subject is in all probability Rebekah accompanied by Eleazar setting out from home on her journey to marry Isaac (Gen. 24:61)” (p. 174, cat. no. 378–79).

Etching wove paper, trimmed with a narrow margin around the platemark with a fragment of an engraving (verso) from the 1784 Paris edition of “Stirpes Novae” as is discussed by Mannocci (1988) p. 28 and by H Diane Russell (1982) in “Claude Lorrain 1600–1682”, p. 300.

Size: (sheet) 13.3 x 19.6 cm; (plate) 12.9 x 19.4 cm; (image borderline) 12.6 x 19 cm.

Numbered in plate outside the image borderline: (lower left) “10”.

State vii (of vii)

Mannocci 38 vii (Lino Mannocci 1988, “The Etchings of Claude Lorrain”, New Haven, Yale University Press, pp. 230–37, cat. no. 38); Blum 33; Robert-Dumesnil 14; Knab 141; Duplessis 14; Russell 46.

Lino Mannocci (1988) offers the following insights about this print:

“This plate is closely related to the drawing, 'Landscape with Rebecca taking leave of her father' [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1957-1214-58]   … and to the painting done for Cardinal Angel Giori in 1640–1. Although the etching is closer in its details to the painting than to the drawing, and is on a similar scale, it is probable that another specially prepared drawing for the etching existed and is now lost …” (p. 237).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: “Rebecca and Eliezer; in the foreground, a man talking with a shepherd near a bridge crossed by a herd of cows and three figures. c.1638/41 Etching” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_M-12-33).

Condition: a strong impression, trimmed close to the platemark with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, foxing or significant stains. The verso of the sheet has a section of a print (“Stirpes Novae”, as documented regarding McCreery’s 1816 edition of “200 Etchings”) and shows marks from mounting in McCreery’s publication.

I am selling this original etching from the 1816 edition by McCreery, executed by the one of the most famous artists of the 17^th century, for a total cost of AU$388 (currently US$183.91/EUR247.20/GBP211.47 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 purchasing this superb impression of a very beautiful etching, 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