MARTIN SCHONGAUER The Madonna and Child with an Apple.
Engraving, circa 1475. 174x128 mm; 6 7/8x5 inches, thread margins. Ex-collection Ducs d'Arenberg (Lugt 567, verso); and Dr. Albert W. Blum (Lugt 79b, verso). A superb, richly-inked and early impression of this extremely scarce engraving, with all the fine details distinct and with little to no sign of wear.
We have found fewer than 10 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years. There are only 6 impressions listed in North American public collections; Lehrs cites only 8 known impressions.
Schongauer (circa 1445-1491) was the most important printmaker north of the Alps before Albrecht Dürer. His exquisitely engraved images were circulated widely throughout Europe. The sheer number of engraved copies of Schongauer's prints, made by other artists during his lifetime, attests not only to his popularity and the significant demand for his work in the late 15th/early 16th century but also to a rapidly expanding market for prints (Schongauer made approximately 115 engravings of different subjects, of which there are an equivalent number of different copies made by other artists during the late 15th century alone. One of Schongauer's best-known engravings, The Death of the Virgin, early 1470s, was copied in at least 7 different prints by the early 16th century). Most importantly, he was one of the first printmakers to develop an individual style and whose engravings helped to stimulate an interest in collecting prints hitherto unseen in northern Europe.
Schongauer's work paved the way for the success of subsequent printmakers and was profoundly influential to the generation of engravers who proceeded him, most notably Albrecht Dürer (see lots 1-4 and 9-44). In 1492, the 21-year-old, prodigious Dürer had intended to train with Schongauer but arrived from Nuremberg to the master engraver's workshop in Colmar just months after his death. Bartsch 28; Lehrs 39.
