Bleaching-Field in Front of a Fort on a River, from Landscapes (Playsante Lantschappen)
c. 1641
Medium
Etching, with engraving, on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 15.3 × 26.2 cm (6 1/16 × 10 3/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
268680
Art Historical Context
In the heart of the Dutch Golden Age, Claes Jansz. Visscher II, a masterful Amsterdam printmaker and publisher (1587–1652), captured the serene beauty of his homeland in *Bleaching-Field in Front of a Fort on a River*, from his series *Landscapes (Pleysante Lantschappen)* around 1641. This etching with engraving depicts a tranquil riverside scene: linen cloths spread out to bleach in the sun on grassy fields, overlooked by a sturdy fort, evoking the everyday rhythms of 17th-century Dutch rural life amid the era's prosperity and peace after decades of war. Visscher's technique shines here—etch...
About the Artist
Claes Jansz. Visscher, II · 1587–1652
Claes Janszoon Visscher II (1587–1652) was one of the most prolific and commercially astute figures of the Dutch Golden Age print world — a draughtsman, etcher, mapmaker, and publisher whose Amsterdam workshop became one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Born into a family already engaged in the print trade, Visscher learned etching and engraving directly from his father, Claes Jansz. Visscher...