Plate 15, from Landscapes with Farmhouses

Art Historical Context

Plate 15 from *Landscapes with Farmhouses* is an etching created by Boetius Adams Bolswert in 1614. Rendered on ivory laid paper with a plate size of 15.7 × 24.4 cm, the print belongs to a series celebrating rural scenes. Its modest scale and fine linework reflect the intimate nature of early 17th-century Dutch printmaking, where such works brought the countryside into collectors’ homes. Etching allowed artists to achieve delicate textures and atmospheric effects suited to depicting farmhouses and open fields. Bolswert’s contribution to the series underscores the growing popularity of landscape subjects in Northern Europe at the time, when prints helped circulate images of everyday life across regions. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Prints and Drawings department, this sheet measuring 21.7 × 29 cm offers a window into the technical precision and quiet charm of early modern graphic art.