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Showing posts from May, 2013

The Times of Day

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Sets of prints showing the times of day: morning, noon, evening and night. This 17th century set was published in Antwerp, then one of the major print-publishing centres. It focuses on a woman's activities throughout the day: [Four Times Of Day]  Mart. vanden Enden execudit Antwerpiae. Set of four engravings. 203 x 292mm. The composition depicts female figures in contemporary dress engaged in 17th century occupations and pastimes. Martin van den Enden. A publisher and printmaker from Antuwerp, flourishing 1630 - 1645. Most associated with works after Van Dyck. [Ref: 7046]  £950 Unlike the scenes in van der Enden's set, which maintain a compositional conformity (the woman is stood in the middle of each scene), a set by Bonnart shows more diversity. In this set midday is represented by eating, and evening by sleeping: [Times of Day] Le Matin [&] Le Midy. [&] La pres disner. [&] Le Soir.

Reading Books by their Covers

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Images which have graced the front cover of literary works published by Penguin and Oxford University Press:  OUP used Quentin Matsys' The Misers for the cover of Five Plays by Ben Jonson . The original is lost but there are many surviving copies, including one in the Royal Collection which was the basis for our print: The Misers. From the celebrated Picture by Quintin Matsys in His Majesty's Collection Windsor Castle. Les Avares. D Apres le celibre tableau par Quintin Matsys de la galerie de sa Majeste au Chatea de Windsor. Dean & Munday Litographer's Threadneedle St. [A. Friedel.] [n.d. c.1830.] Lithograph on india, rare with large margins. 406 x 272mm. 16 x 10¾". Slight foxing bottom right Misers sat at a table logging in a book their worth. Three bulging bags of coins, tied into one, sit on the table in front, with coins spread out to the right; a bird on a perch sits behind on the wall below the shelf. After the 'Blacksmith of

Artist's Self-portraits

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Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola, from a 1561 self-portrait (still at Althorp, as mentioned on the print):   Sofonisba Angosciola. From an original Painting by herself in the Gallery at Althorp. Engraved by Hawksworth. London, Pubd. by Sherwood, Gilbert & Piper, Paternoster Row, Novr. 20, 1827. Engraving from an unidentified publication, sheet 185 x 120mm. 7¼ x 4¾". Trimmed to plate.   Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1532-1625) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance, and one of few female artists mentioned in Vasari's "Lives of Artists." [Ref: 19562]   £80.00   (£96.00 incl.VAT) This early portrait of Rubens was probably engraved from a now-lost original of the artist with his son, executed in the 1620s, of which a copy is now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg: Excellentissimus Dns D. Petrus Paulus Rubenius pictorum Apelles, decus huius saeculi, Orbis miraculum. Aulam Hispanicam, Gallican, Ang