Sir Walter Raleigh

Art Historical Context

This engraving portrays Sir Walter Raleigh, the renowned Elizabethan explorer, courtier, and writer whose adventurous spirit helped shape England’s early colonial ambitions. Created between 1601 and 1650 by Frederik Hendrik van den Hove after an original design by Simon de Passe, the print captures Raleigh during a period when his exploits and eventual imprisonment had already made him a figure of fascination across Europe. As an engraving, the work exemplifies a medium that flourished in the seventeenth century for its ability to produce multiple impressions from a single copper plate. This ...