Stuttgart: The Lake, from "German Views"
1663–65
Medium
Etching, only state
Dimensions
Plate: 2 1/8 × 4 1/2 in. (5.4 × 11.5 cm) cut on the platemark
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917
Accession Number
17.50.17-390
Tags
Art Historical Context
Wenceslaus Hollar’s *Stuttgart: The Lake* offers a serene of a German landscape from the artist’s series “German Views,” created between 1663 and 1665. The small etching captures a tranquil lake scene featuring boats and surrounding countryside, rendered with Hollar’s characteristic precision. As a Bohemian-born artist who spent much of his career in England, Hollar specialized in topographical prints that served both as artistic works and documentary records of 17th-century Europe. Executed in etching—a technique prized for its ability to produce fine, delicate lines—this print exists in onl...
About the Artist
Wenceslaus Hollar · 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...