Alpine Landscape
Medium
aquatint and etching printed in brown on laid paper
Dimensions
image: 20.1 × 27.3 cm (7 15/16 × 10 3/4 in.) plate: 22.2 × 29.3 cm (8 3/4 × 11 9/16 in.) sheet: 26.5 × 36 cm (10 7/16 × 14 3/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund
Accession Number
2018.91.32
Art Historical Context
Created around 1762–1766, *Alpine Landscape* is a delicate aquatint and etching by François-Philippe Charpentier after an original composition by the Flemish painter Paul Bril. Working in the mid-eighteenth century, Charpentier translated Bril’s dramatic mountain vista into print form, using the recently developed aquatint process to suggest the soft gradations of light and atmosphere found in painted landscapes. Printed in warm brown ink on laid paper, the work captures rugged peaks, winding paths, and distant valleys with a tonal subtlety rarely achieved in earlier etching techniques alone. ...