Two Mezzotints

Details

BERNARD LENS II (1659-1725) AFTER CORNELIS VAN POELENBURGH (1594-1667)
Two Mezzotints
Landscape with Ruins and bathing Women
circa 1680-1706
on thick laid paper, without watermark
a very fine, tonal impression of this rare print
with small margins
some short creases, with associated rubbing;
and Landscape with a formal terraced Garden with Fountains
circa 1686-1725
on laid paper, without watermark
a very fine, tonal impression of this extremely rare print, published by E. Cooper
with margins and a sharp platemark
some pale mount staining and minor foxing in the margins
generally in very good condition
Plate 252 x 292 mm., Sheet 265 x 312 mm. (Bathing Women)
Plate 122 x 160 mm., Sheet 158 x 199 mm. (Terraced Garden)(2)

来源

Christopher Mendez (1943-2025), London; then by descent to present owners.

Literature

Blackett-Ord & Turner, B. 56 (Bathing Women only)
Not in Chaloner-Smith or Russell.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Stefano Franceschi Specialist

sfranceschi@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7752 3103

拍品专文

The unrecorded print of the Landscape with a formal terraced Garden with Fountains is very likely also after Poelenburgh, as the initials CRP probably mean 'Cornelis Poelenburgh Roma'. He was one of the leading Netherlandish landscape painters working in Rome in the early 17th century, and a founding member of the 'Bentvueghels' group, the society of mainly Flemish and Dutch artists living in Rome.
Some time between 1638-49 he also lived in London, and it is likely that the two paintings which served as models for the present mezzotints came with him to England or were painted here. This would explain why Bernard Lens made the prints and Cooper published them, long after Poelenburgh's return to Utrecht and after his death in 1667.

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