The Bagpiper
Medium
Etching; third state
Dimensions
plate: 3 7/8 x 2 15/16 in. sheet: 4 3/16 x 3/1/8 in.
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
41.21.19
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the intimate etching *The Bagpiper* (7), German artists Johann Christoph Erhard and Ferdinand Kettner capture a solitary male musician immersed in his craft. Rendered in the third state of this print—a stage where the plate has been refined through multiple reworkings—the image showcases fine lines and textures on a diminutive scale (plate: 3 7/8 x 2 15/16 in.). Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, this work from The Elisha Whittelsey Collection exemplifies early 19th-century printmaking precision. Etching, a technique involving acid-biting into a meta...
About the Artist
Johann Christoph Erhard|Ferdinand Kettner · 1795–1822
Johann Christoph Erhard (1795–1822) was a German painter and etcher of the Romantic era whose sensitive landscape studies and skillful prints earned him a growing reputation before his tragically early death at twenty-six. Born in Nuremberg, he studied at the Nuremberg Academy and later in Munich, where he was influenced by the Romantic landscape tradition and the revival of interest in the art of...