Bleaching-Field in Front of a Fort on a River, from Landscapes (Playsante Lantschappen)
c. 1641
Medium
Etching, with engraving, on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 15.3 × 26.2 cm (6 1/16 × 10 3/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
268680
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
In the heart of the Dutch Golden Age, Claes Jansz. Visscher II, a masterful Amsterdam printmaker and publisher (1587–1652), captured the serene beauty of his homeland in *Bleaching-Field in Front of a Fort on a River*, from his series *Landscapes (Pleysante Lantschappen)* around 1641. This etching with engraving depicts a tranquil riverside scene: linen cloths spread out to bleach in the sun on grassy fields, overlooked by a sturdy fort, evoking the everyday rhythms of 17th-century Dutch rural life amid the era's prosperity and peace after decades of war. Visscher's technique shines here—etch...
About the Artist
Claes Jansz. Visscher, II · 1587–1652
Claes Janszoon Visscher II (1587–1652) was one of the most prolific and commercially astute figures of the Dutch Golden Age print world — a draughtsman, etcher, mapmaker, and publisher whose Amsterdam workshop became one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Born into a family already engaged in the print trade, Visscher learned etching and engraving directly from his father, Claes Jansz. Visscher...