Weeping Willow
Medium
Etching on off-white laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 49.4 × 37.3 cm (19 1/2 × 14 11/16 in.); Sheet: 57.4 × 43.2 cm (22 5/8 × 17 1/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
149543
Art Historical Context
Jacob Philipp Hackert’s *Weeping Willow* of 1802 captures the quiet dignity of nature through the refined medium of etching. Created on off-white laid paper, the print measures nearly twenty inches in height, allowing the artist’s delicate lines to convey the graceful droop of willow branches with remarkable clarity. Hackert, a leading German landscape specialist who worked extensively in Italy, brought a measured neoclassical sensibility to his subjects, balancing precise observation with an elegant sense of composition. Etching was prized in the early nineteenth century for its ability to r...
About the Artist
Jacob Philipp Hackert · 1737–1807
German landscape painter, views in Italy; in the manner of Claude. Landscape painter whose international experience and views in the tradition of Claude Lorrain proved highly influential when he settled in Naples in the late 18th century.