Autumn (Autumness)
Medium
Etching; third state of three
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 1/16 × 6 1/16 in. (10.3 × 15.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.5444
Tags
Art Historical Context
Created in 1629 by Dutch artist Jan van de Velde II in collaboration with etcher Wenceslaus Hollar, *Autumn (Autumness)* captures the quiet rhythms of rural life during the Dutch Golden Age. This delicate etching belongs to a tradition of seasonal imagery that celebrated nature’s cycles while reflecting the prosperity and domestic harmony prized in seventeenth-century Netherlands. The third state of the print reveals the artists’ careful refinements to line and tone, demonstrating the technical precision possible in etching. The scene portrays villagers amid modest houses, with men and women ...
About the Artist
Jan van de Velde II|Wenceslaus Hollar · 1593–1641
Jan van de Velde II (1593–1641) was one of the most accomplished Dutch printmakers and draughtsmen of the early seventeenth century, born in Haarlem into a dynasty of celebrated calligraphers and artists. His father, Jan van de Velde I, was a renowned writing master, and his cousin Willem van de Velde the Elder would later become a distinguished marine painter. Jan II studied engraving under Jacob...