Landscape in the Dark Manner
1657–61
Medium
Mezzotint with touches of etching in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 12.5 × 16.2 cm (4 15/16 × 6 7/16 in.); Sheet: 13 × 16.8 cm (5 1/8 × 6 5/8 in.)
Classification
mezzotint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
84318
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In contrast to Rembrandt’s dark, linear etching and burin work, landscape etcher Allart van Everdingen created a group of evocative, softly toned nocturnal prints and book illustrations using an early form of mezzotint engraving. Here a dilapidated house and a church spire emerge from the murky darkness. The chronology of Everdingen’s ten early mezzotints remains inconclusive, for none are dated. However, this plate’s variety of intaglio media and the seepage of ink into the margins suggest an i...