Etching and drypoint, 1636. 132x196 mm; 5¼x7¾ inches. Trimmed within or on the plate mark. Fourth state (a) (of 6), before the scratch on the tree branch. Mannocci 18.
We have found fewer than 11 other lifetime impressions like the current work at auction in the past 30 years.
This is among the most celebrated of Claude's (1600-1682) forty-five total etchings, most of which parallel paintings and drawings from throughout the artist's career (the current etching is closest to a painting now in the collection of the Alte Pinokothek, Munich). Francis Seymour Haden, the 19th century printmaker, and brother-in-law of James A. M. Whistler, noted of Le Bouvier, "In quality it is surprising, and in touch, magical—one never tires of wondering at it. Though highly finished it has the true ring of an etching."
