Lady Mary Butts
Medium
Etching; first state of three (NH)
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 3/16 × 3 5/8 in. (13.2 × 9.2 cm) ccut on platemark with thread margins, small tear at leftedge near brow level
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
51.501.2097
Tags
Art Historical Context
This etching, created in 1649 by Wenceslaus Hollar, captures the likeness of a Tudor-era noblewoman in a compact, intimate format. Hollar, a prolific Bohemian printmaker working in England, produced this work as the first state of three, using delicate line work to translate an earlier painted portrait into print. The sheet, measuring just over five by three inches, reflects the artist’s skill in reproductive etching, a technique that allowed wider circulation of famous images from the previous century. The composition is closely associated with Hans Holbein the Younger, whose original portra...
About the Artist
Wenceslaus Hollar|Margaret, Lady Butts|Hans Holbein the Younger · 1607–1677
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) was a prolific Bohemian etcher who became one of the most accomplished printmakers of the seventeenth century. Born in Prague, he trained under Matthäus Merian in Frankfurt before entering the service of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1636. Hollar spent most of his career in England, where he produced approximately 2,740 etchings documenting an extraordinary range...