Vissers op het strand

About this artwork

collector's mark: Lugt 2228

Art Historical Context

"Vissers op het strand" (Fishermen on the Beach), created in 1838 by Dutch artist Jan Baptist Tetar van Elven, captures a quiet coastal scene in the compact form of a steel engraving. Measuring just 73 by 114 millimeters, this delicate print reflects the 19th-century fascination with everyday maritime life, a theme deeply rooted in Dutch artistic tradition. Steel engraving was prized during this period for its ability to produce fine, durable lines and intricate detail, making it ideal for book illustrations and affordable art reproductions. The small scale suggests it may have been intended ...

About the Artist

Jan Baptist Tetar van Elven · 1805–1879

Jan Baptiste Tetar van Elven (1805–1879) was a Dutch Romantic painter who specialized in meticulously rendered church interiors, a genre with deep roots in Dutch artistic tradition extending back to the seventeenth-century masters Pieter Saenredam and Emanuel de Witte. Working during the nineteenth century when Romanticism's fascination with Gothic architecture and medieval spirituality coincided ...