Landscape with Ruins and Fountain
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 9 3/16 × 11 9/16 in. (23.4 × 29.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.600.238
Art Historical Context
Created around 1750–1770, *Landscape with Ruins and Fountain* is an etching that captures the eighteenth-century fascination with classical antiquity. The work is associated with Charles Louis Clérisseau, a French architect and draftsman celebrated for his detailed studies of Roman remains, along with printmakers Joseph Wagner and Fabio Berardi. Measuring just over nine by eleven inches, the modest sheet size made such images ideal for collectors and travelers participating in the Grand Tour. Etching proved especially suited to rendering crumbling arches, weathered stone, and the gentle play ...
About the Artist
Joseph Wagner|Fabio Berardi|Charles Louis Clérisseau · 1706–1780
Joseph Wagner (1706–1780) was a highly accomplished German engraver and draughtsman who spent the majority of his career in Venice, where he became one of the most important figures in eighteenth-century Venetian printmaking. Born in Thalendorf near Lake Constance in 1706, Wagner initially trained as a painter under the Venetian-born artist Jacopo Amigoni before being persuaded to dedicate himself...