Portret van Anna Louisa Gertrude Bosboom-Toussaint

About this artwork

collector's mark: Lugt 2228

Art Historical Context

Behold the elegant *Portret van Anna Louisa Bosboom-Toussaint an engraving by Dutch artist Petrus Johannes Arzen, created sometime between circa 1860 and 1886. This intimate portrait captures the likeness of Bosboom-Toussaint, celebrated 19th-century Dutch novelist for her historical fiction and contributions to Romantic literature. At 228 mm high by 185 mm wide, print's modest scale made it ideal for personal collections or illustrations in books, reflecting the era's growing fascination with literary celebrities. Engraving, Arendzen's chosen medium, exemplifies the precision of 19th-century intaglio printmaking. By incising fine lines into a metal plate with a burin, artists like him could produce richly detailed, reproducible images with subtle tonal gradations—perfect for disseminating portraits across Europe. This technique bridged fine art and mass media, allowing admirers to own a piece of cultural history. Adorned with a collector's mark (Lugt 2228), this work bears witness to its esteemed provenance, linking it to discerning 19th- or early 20th-century collectors. It invites us to ponder Bosboom-Toussaint's enduring legacy, frozen in meticulous lines that whisper of Victorian-era intellectual life.

About the Artist

Petrus Johannes Arendzen · 1855–1935

Petrus Johannes Arendzen (1846–1932) was a Dutch etcher, draughtsman, and painter who dedicated his career to creating reproductive etchings of Dutch paintings in English collections while living in England from 1873 onward. Born in Amsterdam in 1846, Arendzen married Epiphania, daughter of Johan Stracké, and left his native city to pursue a unique commission from the Dutch Government: to copy the...