Jan van den Wouwer
1630/45
Medium
Etching in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 23.2 × 15.2 cm (9 3/16 × 6 in.); Plate: 23.5 × 15.5 cm (9 5/16 × 6 1/8 in.); Sheet: 24.7 × 17.3 cm (9 3/4 × 6 13/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
55862
Art Historical Context
This elegant etching by Flemish printmaker Paul Pontius captures the likeness of Jan van den Wouwer, a figure from the seventeenth-century Low Countries. Created between 1630 and 1645, the work exemplifies the period’s flourishing print culture, when artists used etching to produce affordable, high-quality portraits that circulated widely among collectors and scholars. Pontius, active in Antwerp, specialized in translating the compositions of leading painters into print, helping to spread their fame across Europe. The medium of etching on laid paper allowed for fine, expressive lines that con...