River and Rural Scene
1769
Medium
Mezzotint on paper
Dimensions
Image: 41.5 × 53 cm (16 3/8 × 20 7/8 in.); Plate: 45.5 × 53.2 cm (17 15/16 × 21 in.); Sheet: 46.8 × 54.2 cm (18 7/16 × 21 3/8 in.)
Classification
mezzotint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
76103
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The English printmaker Richard Earlom produced multiple mezzotints of Old Master works, including this scene by the 17th-century Dutch painter Meindert Hobbema. Characteristic of Hobbema’s style is the shaded foreground, with occasional flickers of light that lengthen the shadows of figures and cows and contrast with an area of warm light in the background. Hobbema’s works show a desire to present landscape as an idyllic environment, ordered and regulated by man, an idea that spoke to Earlom, as...
About the Artist
Richard Earlom · 1728–1794
Richard Earlom (1743–1822) stands as one of the supreme masters of mezzotint engraving in British art history, whose technical virtuosity and dedication to reproductive printmaking brought the works of Old Masters to unprecedented audiences. Born in London on May 14, 1743, Earlom spent his entire career transforming paintings and drawings into prints of extraordinary quality, elevating reproductiv...