Aap op de rug van een hond
Jan van Somer
1675 - 1696
Medium
paper
Dimensions
244; 189
About this artwork
mezzotint
Art Historical Context
This mezzotint by Dutch printmaker Jan van Somer captures a whimsical scene of a monkey riding on the back of a dog. Created between 1675 and 1696 on a sheet measuring 244 by 189 millimeters, the work reflects the playful animal imagery popular in the Netherlands during the late Golden Age. Mezzotint, the medium employed here, was a relatively new technique that allowed artists to produce rich, velvety blacks and subtle tonal gradations through roughening the plate surface. Van Somer helped popularize this method for reproducing lively, painterly effects in affordable prints. The subject lik...