Vue de la chute du torrent de Gelten
Medium
Color aquatint, etching, and engraving
Dimensions
Image: 12 7/8 in. × 9 in. (32.7 × 22.9 cm) Sheet: 16 7/8 × 10 11/16 in. (42.9 × 27.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1969
Accession Number
69.574.17
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...