A Family Saying Grace
Medium
Etching, second state of two
Dimensions
Plate: 15 1/2 × 20 in. (39.3 × 50.8 cm) Sheet: 16 1/2 × 20 9/16 in. (41.9 × 52.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1989
Accession Number
1989.1119
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
Created in 1609 by the Dutch printmaker Claes Jansz. Visscher, *A Family Saying Grace* captures a quiet moment of domestic devotion. Rendered as an etching in the second state of two, the print reveals a modest interior where family members bow their heads in prayer around a simple table. Doorways frame the scene, drawing the viewer’s eye into the home and emphasizing the intimacy of the gathering. Visscher, active during the early Dutch Golden Age, specialized in etchings that brought everyday life to a wide audience. The medium allowed fine detail and multiple impressions, making such images affordable and influential in shaping ideas of piety and family life in the Protestant Netherlands. This work reflects the period’s growing interest in genre scenes that celebrated ordinary virtues. Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art through the Elisha Whittelsey Fund, the print remains a charming window into seventeenth-century Dutch values, where faith was woven into the rhythms of daily existence.
About the Artist
Claes Jansz. Visscher · 1586–1652
Claes Jansz. Visscher, also known as Nicolas Joannis Visscher II or Joannis Piscator, was a prominent Dutch Golden Age draughtsman, engraver, mapmaker, and publisher born in Amsterdam in 1587 and died there on June 19, 1652. The son of the printmaker and publisher Jan Claesz. Visscher (c. 1550–1612), he learned the art of etching and printing from his father, helping to expand the family trade int...