Monogrammist L.K.

This etching is an ingenious repetition in reverse of Hendrick Goltzius’ chiaroscuro woodcut Landscape with Waterfall (Bartsch 242; Hollstein 378; Bialler 49). Goltzius produced the woodcut between 1597 and 1600 and the watermark on our etching would indicate that it arose immediately afterwards – an unmistakable sign of the degree of familiarity with Goltzius’ printed oeuvre in northern Europe. The work is the result of a free, painterly etching technique which approximates very closely to the atmospheric values of the original. The format, too, is almost identical with Goltzius’ prototype. The etching is of great rarity. Only one other example appears to be known, an impression without the monogram in the Albertina in Vienna (see exhibition catalogue N. Bialler, Chiaroscuro Woodcuts – Hendrick Goltzius and his Time, Amsterdam-Ohio 1993; p. 176, fig. 97). Our impression is in all likelihood an unrecorded early state before the deletion of the monogram. Marjolein Leesberg is of the opinion that Lukas Kilian could be considered the author of the etching; the monogram is very similar to the artist’s sign recorded by Nagler (G. K. von Nagler, Die Monogrammisten, Vol. IV, 1165). Lukas Kilian was without doubt the most prominent representative of the influential and widely dispersed Augsburg family of engravers. Characteristic of his early work are reproductive prints after Italian masters and artists of the Rudolphinian circle. In this artistic environment Kilian probably came into contact with the printed oeuvre of Hendrick Golzius.

A very fine, strong impression with a light platetone and wiping marks, showing touches of burr along the platemark; printed on the full sheet. Some minor staining in the margins and a few small nicks at the sheet edges, otherwise in impeccably fresh, untreated condition.