Henry en Poins overvallen Falstaff en zijn metgezellen

About this artwork

collector's mark: Lugt 2228

Art Historical Context

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowie, a prolific German etcher and engraver active in the late 18th century, captures a lively moment from William Shakespeare's *Henry IV, Part 1* in this 1785 etching titledHenry en Poins over Falstaff en zijn metellen* ("Henry and Poins Ambush Falstaff and Hisions"). The scene depicts the infamous Gadshill robbery, where Prince Hal (Henry) and his friend Poins surprise the boisterous knight Falstaff and his roguish band, highlighting themes of youthful mischief and deception that define Shakespeare's history plays. Chodowiecki, director of the Prussian Academy of Arts in...

About the Artist

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki · 1726–1801

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726–1801) was a German painter and printmaker of Polish-Huguenot descent who became the most celebrated graphic artist in 18th-century Germany. Born in Danzig (now Gdańsk), he created approximately 2,000 etchings that serve as an invaluable visual record of German bourgeois life during the Enlightenment. Largely self-taught, Chodowiecki moved to Berlin in 1743 and ach...