Artist: Herman van Swanevelt (1603 – 1655) was a Dutch painter and etcher from the Baroque era.
Title: Balaam's ass.
Signed, Titled, Numbered, and Dated in plate: H Swanevelt Fecit Rom. Avec Privel du Roy. Poilly Excudit. [No] 2.
Dimensions: Image 8 7/8" x 12 1/8". Sheet 11" x 14 3/8".
Publisher: Nicolas Jean Baptiste Poilly (1712–1780) was a French draftsman and engraver [in plate].
- Presumably, the same publisher as for the group of Swanevelts from our collection. Our assumption is based on the fact that all engravings are printed on the same paper.
Date: 1629-1641.
Materials and Techniques: etching on wove paper.
Watermark: "voyage en autriche". C. 1808. The same paper was used in 1808 - 1814 for publishing: Laborde, Alexandre Louis Joseph de. Description des nouveaux jardins de la France. Paris 1808-1814. (Robin Halvas Ltd. Catalog III. London, 1995).
Provenance: The Estate of George "Yorgo" Demetrakopoulos; professor, assistant director of the Medieval Institute, and assistant to the dean at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, from 1965-2000.
Condition: Dents to margins, soiling. The signs of aging are appropriate for the time. A detailed condition report is available on demand.
Catalog Raisonne: Catalogue de la collection de dessins, estampes anciennes et modernes, livres a figures et sur les arts, portraits peints, Christ en ivoire, etc., composant le cabinet de feu M. Simon, 1862. Balaam, p. 184.
Bartsch. Le Peintre graveur... Vol II. p. 314. No. 111.
Museums and Libraries: The British Museum Sheepshanks.2297.
Art Movements, Periods & Schools: Dutch School XVII C.
Note: This entry incorporates text from the catalog entry and uses the catalog description of the same item from the collection of the British Museum.
This is a late impression on wove paper with a watermark.