Vue de la chute du torrent de Gelten

Art Historical Context

This striking print, titled *Vue de la chute du torrent de Gelten*, captures the dramatic rush of a Swiss Alpine waterfall in 1785. Created through a collaborative involving painter Caspar Wolf and printmakers Charles Melchior Descourtis and Rudolph Samuel Henzi, work reflects the late-eighteenth-century fascination with the power of nature. Wolf, known for his pioneering Alpine landscapes, helped bring remote mountain scenery to a wider audience through such reproductive prints. The image was produced using the innovative combination of color aquatint, etching, and engraving—a technique that allowed for rich tonal effects and vivid hues rarely achieved in earlier printmaking. This medium enabled the dramatic contrasts of cascading water, rocky cliffs, and misty atmosphere to be widely disseminated, making grand natural wonders accessible beyond the Alps. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Drawings and Prints, this work exemplifies how artists and publishers of the period bridged fine art and popular appreciation for the natural world.

About the Artist

Caspar Wolf|Charles Melchior Descourtis|Rudolph Samuel Henzi · 1735–1783

**Caspar Wolf** (1735–1783) was a Swiss painter renowned for his dramatic and pioneering depictions of the Alps, capturing glaciers, caves, waterfalls, and gorges with a sense of sublime grandeur. Born on 3 May 1735 in Muri, Aargau, he was the son of a furniture maker who had been banned from his city. His early training took place in Konstanz, followed by work as a decoration painter in Augsburg,...