Claude Lorrain’s etching, “La Danse sous les Arbres”, c.1637

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

“La Danse sous les Arbres” (aka “The Country Dance, Small Plate”; “Dancing under the Trees”), c.1637, printed from the original plate and published in 1816 by J. McCreery in the “200 Etchings” folio. This impression is from the Schulze edition of 1816.

Etching on wove paper, trimmed along the platemark image borderline and with a section of an engraving from the 1784 Paris edition of “Stirpes Novae” shown verso (documented as a feature of the McCreery impressions; see Mannocci [1988] p. 28).

Size: (sheet) 13.7 x 19.9 cm; (image borderline) 13.2 x 19.3 cm.

State vii (of vii) as published in the 1816 Schulze edition of 200 Etchings with number, “6” from state v erased and with horizontal lines covering the foreground on the left and the sky on the upper right.

Mannocci 19 vii (Lino Mannocci 1988, “The Etchings of Claude Lorrain”, New Haven, Yale University Press, pp. 149–157, cat. no. 19, seventh state); Blum 35; Robert-Dumesnil 10; Duplessis 10; Russell 28.

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: “The country dance; a couple dancing, a woman playing the tambourine, other countrymen sitting, one of them playing the bagpipes, in a woody landscape; small version. c.1637
Etching” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1841-0809-73).

Regarding the plate for this etching (and the others printed by McCreery), Andrew Brink (2013) in “Ink and Light: The Influence of Claude Lorrain’s Etching on England” (McGill Queen’s University Press) offers the following insight: “The plates of Claude’s etchings disappeared without trace as mysteriously as they had first come to London” (p. 74). From my very unreliable memory, I recall being told in a chat with a “knowledgeable friend” who was told by another “knowledgeable friend” that the plates were discovered as ballast on a ship, but this information may be far from the truth.

Condition: a richly inked and well-printed impression, trimmed around the platemark. Beyond a few pale stains, the sheet is in an excellent condition with no tears, folds, holes or abrasions. Note that the verso shows a section of an engraving from the 1784 Paris edition of “Stirpes Novae” (documented as a feature of the McCreery impressions).

I am selling this amazingly strong impression of a very beautiful etching by Claude Lorrain, for the total cost of AU$398 (currently US$266.02/EUR240.70/GBP211.88 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 etching by one of the most famous of all landscape artists, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.