Hylas and the Nymphs
1771
Medium
etching on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 24.1 x 19 cm (9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.) sheet: 27.4 x 38.4 cm (10 13/16 x 15 1/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
1999.100.14
Art Historical Context
Salomon Gessner’s 1771 etching *Hylas and the Nymphs* captures a moment from Greek mythology in which the youthful companion of Hercules is lured into a pool by water nymphs. Gessner, a Swiss artist, poet, and publisher celebrated for his pastoral idylls, drew on both Rococo grace and the emerging Neoclassical interest in antiquity to create serene, arcadian visions that appealed to eighteenth-century audiences. The choice of etching on laid paper allowed Gessner to render delicate foliage, rippling water, and soft figures with fine, expressive lines. Such prints were widely circulated, bring...
About the Artist
Salomon Gessner · 1730–1788
Salomon Gessner was born in Zurich in 1730 into a family of printers and publishers, an upbringing that placed books, images, and ideas at the center of his world from an early age. Though largely self-taught as a visual artist, he received some instruction during a period in Berlin, where he encountered the German Rococo tradition, and his mature work reflects a deep absorption in the pastoral li...