Saint Paul's from the South Showing the Spire
Medium
Etching in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
17.8 × 37.4 cm (7 1/16 × 14 3/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
75210
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Wenceslaus Hollar worked in London for the better part of two periods, 1637–41 and 1652–77, and these were two of the most productive of his printmaking career. He etched a variety of subjects, including landscapes, and reproduced artworks in the collection of his host, the Earl of Arundel. Hollar also documented Saint Paul’s Cathedral from the inside and out, including this imagined exterior view from before a lightning bolt destroyed the spire in 1561. He was still living in London during the ...
About the Artist
Wenceslaus Hollar · 1607–1677
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) was a prolific Bohemian etcher who became one of the most accomplished printmakers of the seventeenth century. Born in Prague, he trained under Matthäus Merian in Frankfurt before entering the service of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1636. Hollar spent most of his career in England, where he produced approximately 2,740 etchings documenting an extraordinary range...