Mountain Valley with a Winding River [HB 14 I a]

? Amsterdam, c. 1622 - c. 1625

Object data

lift-ground line etching printed in black on paper

height c. 176 mm × width c. 213 mm (trimmed within the printed surface, mainly at top where part of the image has been lost)

Inscriptions

inscribed on verso: upper centre, in a seventeenth-century hand, in black chalk, Doen ick met Herckles Pietersen, Clae[s] ende Pa[aulus] / na den Oovertoom ghinghen; partially repeated and completed, in brown ink, en Paulus na den Overtoom ghinge[n] / had ick dit mee
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the City of Amsterdam (L. 11)

Technical notes

First state of two (lift-ground line etching; band of spots in the sky above the mountains and some pitting caused by foul biting in ground). Watermark: Arms of Prince Maurits; similar to Laurentius, I, nos. 197-98 (Terneuzen, Zeeland, 1623]; Heawood, no. 1616; (c. 1600); and Churchill, no. 154 (1616).

Condition

Verso: spotting and a fingerprint at lower right in black ink.

Provenance

...; anonymous owner, Amsterdam, probably before 1632; collection Michiel Hinloopen (1619-1708), Amsterdam;¹ by whom bequeathed to the City of Amsterdam (L. 11), 1708; from which on loan to the museum, since 1885

Object number: RP-P-H-OB-831

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam

Context

Small Mountain Landscapes: Variants Printed from One Plate

Although small in number, Segers’s impressions of large mountain landscapes (HB 3-6) nevertheless display a wide diversity of technique and use of materials. This applies even more so to the small mountain landscapes (HB 7-14).² The few surviving impressions of the large landscapes strongly suggest that a significant share of Segers’s print production has been lost. The same suspicion arises when the extant impressions of the small mountain landscapes are compared. The number of known impressions varies from one (HB 11) or two (HB 9, HB 12 and HB 14) up to twenty-two (HB 13), more than of any other print by Segers,³ and even these impressions all differ, the result of Segers’s unremitting urge to experiment.

Strictly speaking, the small mountain landscapes display variations on the same themes and motifs he explored in the large mountain landscapes: views of a deep canyon or valley encircled by fanciful mountain ranges, sometimes sparsely dotted with buildings and tiny figures. By alternating compositions and motifs – but primarily through printing with various colours of ink on different prepared grounds and working up the images in brush in a range of colours – Segers lent every single landscape its own character and atmosphere. Most of these rocky landscapes look barren and desolate, and through the peculiar use of colour sometimes even alien (e.g. HB 7 II b, preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. no. 1973.208, and HB 10 I b, in the British Museum, London, inv. no. S.5520). Other mountain views come across as more welcoming and cultivated (e.g. HB 10 II d, inv. no. RP-P-OB-821 and HB 10 II f, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 23.57.3). With their detailed colouring, the latter ones resemble little paintings. The composition of these two impressions differs substantially because in the one in New York (HB 10 II f) a large section has been trimmed on the left and even more so on the right. The regular occurrence of this phenomenon in prints by Segers and the fact that despite rigorous cropping the compositions are still convincing indicate that this was done by the artist himself to introduce variety in his creations. In all instances, the aim of the experimental and unorthodox methods seems to have been a quest for the greatest possible diversity.

Nevertheless, patterns and even a certain system can be discerned in the way in which Segers set about his work. A colour combination he often used in pulling prints, for example, is blue paper prepared with a pink ground (e.g. HB 7 II b, HB 7 II c, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, inv. no. 245681; HB 9 I a, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, inv. no. 245679; HB 10 I a, inv. no. RP-P-1961-868 and HB 10 I c, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, inv. no. RESERVE CB-49-BOITE ECU(ESTNUM 739)). From the limited number of known impressions, it cannot be determined whether he employed a prepared coloured ink and ground to print an edition of one and the same plate, or whether in one session he printed multiple plates. That the same colour combinations occur in impressions of different plates would seem to suggest the latter option (cf. HB 9 II b, HB 10 II d, HB 10 II e, HB 10 II f, and HB 9 I a, HB 10 I a and HB 10 I c). An advantage of working with several plates simultaneously is that a larger number of impressions can be made in a shorter timespan than continually printing and cleaning the same plate. Speed and efficiency characterize the way in which Seger printed his etchings, as well as working them up with paint and brush. Segers will have probably also used paint prepared for this purpose to colour impressions of different plates, possibly even of prints he had made earlier and had in stock (HB 7 II b, HB 19a-d and HB 21 II c in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden, inv. no. A 49371).

Distinct from the fluid and sometimes even coarse elaboration of the impressions with brush are the often very refined and laborious graphic techniques Segers used to work his copper-plates. This is true for the tones he created in drypoint. Earlier artists, such as for example Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), had already employed drypoint to create tonal effects.⁴ However, the way in which Segers deployed this technique has no precedent. This applies to the Rocky Landscape with a Village and a High Tower, which he first etched and printed (HB 7 I a, inv. no. RP-P-H-OB-818) and subsequently provided with passages of shade in delicate drypoint hatching (HB 7 II b-c). Some prints are known only in impressions with these kinds of additions in drypoint (e.g. HB 8-11). In these instances, first impressions were most likely made only of the etched plate, but these have not come down to us. Passages in drypoint wear relatively quickly. Yet with Segers, this wearing is not in proportion to the number of extant impressions.

Huigen Leeflang, 2016

The artist

Hercules Segers (Haarlem c. 1589/90 - ? 1633/40)

No baptismal record has been found, but he was probably born in Haarlem in c. 1589/90.⁵ The artist mentioned his age twice: once in 1614 stating he was a twenty-four-year-old man from Haarlem and once in 1623 were he mentions he is about thirty-four years old.⁶ His parents, Pieter Segers (c. 1564-1611/12) and Cathelijne Hercules (d. after 1618), both came from Ghent. Hercules was most likely their second son, since he was named after the patronymic of his mother. Whether he had more siblings than his younger brother, Laurens (c. 1592/93-after 1616), is not known.⁷

Hercules’ father was a merchant in Haarlem and Amsterdam, but chose for his son another profession.⁸ The denomination of the family is unknown, but mostly likely they were not Mennonites, as often claimed in the literature. Hercules became an apprentice of the painter Gillis van Coninxloo (1544-1606/07), a landscape artist from Antwerp, who had a workshop at his house on the Oude Turfmarkt.⁹ Following Van Coninxloo’s death, Segers undoubtedly finished his training in another workshop. However, no documents have survived to confirm this.¹⁰

In 1612 Segers left Amsterdam and settled in Haarlem. His name appears in the registration of the Guild of St. Luke of 1612.¹¹ In the summer of 1614 Segers was again documented as living in Amsterdam, together with his extramarital daughter, Nelletje Hercules (?-?). At the age of twenty-four, he married the forty-year-old Anna van der Bruggen (c. 1574-?).¹² Apparently, he was doing well financially, able in 1619 to purchase a large new house on the Lindengracht in Amsterdam called De Hertog van Gelre.¹³ In his etching View through the Window of Segers’s House toward the Noorderkerk (HB 41, inv. no RP-P-H-OB-857), he captured the view from a window in the attic of that house. A decade later, his fortunes changed and he had to sell his house and dismantle his workshop. He moved to Utrecht in 1631.¹⁴ Segers seems to have been active as an art dealer. In May 1631 he sold around 137 paintings to the Amsterdam dealer Jean Antonio Romiti (?-?), including a painting by the young Rembrandt (1606-1669).¹⁵ In 1632 he was living in The Hague and was involved in the sale of about 180 paintings. The only other evidence of his stay there are two documents of 1633, one concerning the art deal and the other regarding the rental of a house.¹⁶ His name does not appear again in the archives, not even in burial records. He probably died between 1633 and 1640.¹⁷

Segers addressed himself multiple times as painter, such as on 28 January 1633 when he was mentioned as ‘painter, at present living in The Hague’ (‘schilder, jegenwoordigh wonende alhier in Den Hage’).¹⁸ However, it is his highly original printed oeuvre to which the artist owes his present day fame. Although he specialized in mountain landscapes, it is doubtful if he ever saw a mountain in real life. His depictions of ancient Italian ruins all derive from prints by other artists, and it is unlikely he travelled to Italy himself.

One painting by Segers suggests that he travelled to the Southern Netherlands. His topographical View of Brussels from the Northeast in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne (P 16, inv. no. WRM Dep. 249) is in all probability a reflection of a visit to that city.¹⁹ His landscapes and city views depicting places in the provinces of Holland, Utrecht and Gelderland are also most likely based on personal observations and drawings ‘from life’.

Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678) was the only contemporary to write about Segers. In his Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkunst (Introduction to the Academy of Painting) of 1678, he described an artist who had great talent but did not receive much recognition during his life. Shortly after his death, however, his prints were most sought after by art lovers who were willing to pay enormous prices for impressions of his prints.²⁰ However this may be, there are indications that Segers’s work was appreciated during his lifetime and well into the seventeenth century by a small group of art lovers and artists.²¹

The paintings that can be attributed to Segers with certainty are a Woodland Path in a private collection in Norway, four mountain landscapes (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Mauritshuis, The Hague; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence), five Dutch panoramic landscapes (two in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh; LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster, on loan from a private collection; private collection in the Netherlands), four hybrid landscapes (private collection in Brussels; Galerie Hans, Hamburg; Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam) and a View of Brussels (Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne). His etchings are extremely rare. In total fifty-three different etchings have survived in 182 impressions – twenty-two of which are unique. Twenty-four of the known etchings depict mountain landscapes, two Biblical scenes, eight panoramic landscapes, six forest-landscapes and trees, eleven ruins and other buildings, four seascapes and ships, and three extraordinary prints show a rearing horse, a skull and a still life with books.

The chronology of Segers’s oeuvre is hard to determine because none of his works is dated. His development as an artist between 1615 and 1630 has traditionally been described as that of a specialist in mountain landscapes based on the tradition set by Pieter Bruegel (1526/30-1569) and his successors towards a pioneer in Dutch panoramic landscapes. Dendrochronological research on the panels he used, however, suggests that Segers made different types of work throughout his career. He created a new kind of panoramic views with a lowered horizon and impressive skies that anticipated the works of the younger generation of specialists in Dutch landscapes, such as Pieter de Molijn (1595-1661) and Jan van Goyen (1596-1656). Simultaneously he created, both in painting and etching, fantastic mountain views and mountain landscapes.

Segers’s graphic experiments with tone and colour are closely related to his work as a painter. The materials he used for his prints, such as pigments, priming and linen, are what one expects to find in a seventeenth-century painter’s workshop rather than in that of a printmaker. Segers’s etchings bear witness to an exceptionally inventive use of printmaking techniques. No printmaker before him had experimented on such a grand scale with the possibilities of copper-plates, etching grounds, etching needles and other graphic tools or with printing and touching-up in colour.

Jaap van der Veen, 2016/Huigen Leeflang, 2020

References
A. Bredius, ‘Iets over Hercules Segers’, in F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis. Verzameling van meerendeels onuitgegeven berichten en mededeelingen betreffende Nederlandsche schilders, plaatsnijders, beeldhouwers, bouwmeesters, juweliers, goud- en zilverdrijvers…, 7 vols., Rotterdam, 1877-90, IV (1882), pp. 314-15; I.H. van Eeghen, ’De ouders van Hercules Segers’, Maandblad Amstelodamum 55 (1968), no. 4, pp. 73-76; J.Z. Kannegieter, ‘Het huis van Hercules Segers op de Lindengracht te Amsterdam’, Oud Holland 59 (1942), nos. 5/6, pp. 150-57; H. Miedema, De archiefbescheiden van het St. Lukasgilde te Haarlem, 2 vols., Alphen aan den Rijn 1980, II, p. 1035; J. van der Veen, ‘”Hercules Segers, disregarded and yet a great artist”: A Sketch of his Life’, in H. Leeflang and P. Roeloefs (eds.), Hercules Segers: Painter, Etcher, 2 vols., exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art) 2016-17, I, pp. 17-36; H. Leeflang, ‘”For he also printed paintings”: Hercules Segers’s Painterly Prints’, in ibid., pp. 39-73; P. Roeloefs, ‘Hercules Segers, the Painter’, in ibid, pp. 111-38

Entry

The only etching by Segers that during his lifetime was certainly in the possession of an acquaintance, perhaps an art lover or confrere, is this black-and-white impression of the Mountain Valley with a Winding River (HB 14 I a). It was made in Segers’s unique lift-ground technique and looks like a detailed drawing in pen and brush and black ink.²² The lines and stipples in the foreground seem to have been done with the tip of a brush; the landscape in the background is very finely drawn. The thicker lines, too, have little relief and the depiction must have been very shallowly bitten in the plate. The artist may have wanted to astound his followers and elicit their admiration with this unique 'printed drawing'. Perhaps his aim was to make a printed equivalent of the pen-and-brush drawings of mountain landscapes by Joos de Momper (1564-1635) and Tobias Verhaecht (1561-1631), among others, that were so popular among collectors.²³

The valley enclosed by cliffs, the winding rivers and the high vantage point strongly recall the large etching of mountain views after drawings by Pieter Bruegel (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-7364).²⁴

On the verso is an inscription in black ink that reads, 'When I went to Overtoom with Hercules Pieters, Claas, and Paulus…' ('Toen ik met Hercules Pieters, Claas en Paulus naar de Overtoom ging…'), at which point it is trimmed by the edge and is therefore partly repeated by the same hand on the next line, 'And [when with] Paulus I went to Overtoom, I had this with me' ('En Paulus naar de Overtoom gingen had ik dit mee').²⁵ The writer evidently had the print in his possession and took it along to a gathering with the artist (Hercules Pieters) and two other acquaintances on the Overtoom, a popular entertainment district in Amsterdam featuring a variety of inns. The owner seems to have attached enough importance to this event to make a note of it on the back. The simplest explanation for taking the print back to its maker is that he wanted elucidation of the sheet and the unique, marvellous technique Segers had used to make it. Spotting in sky caused by foul biting in ground is less visible than in HB 14 II b (State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, inv. no. 245682), probably because plate has been cleaned in places.

The print is from the collection of Michiel Hinloopen (1619-1708), but the handwriting on the back is not his. Who this earlier owner was is not known, but his annotation suggests that Segers’s prints were circulating in the artist’s lifetime among his acquaintances and were cause for discussion.

Huigen Leeflang, 2016

Literature

C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters, van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd (strekkende tevens tot een vervolg op het werk van J. Immerzeel), 7 vols., Amsterdam 1857-64, V (1861), p. 1510; J.P. van der Kellen, Afbeeldingen naar belangrijke prenten en teekeningen in het Rijksprentenkabinet Amsterdam/Reproductions d’après des estampes et des dessins importants du Cabinet des estampes à Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1908, pl. 44; J. Springer, Die Radierungen des Herkules Seghers, 3 vols., Berlin 1910-12, no. 24a, pl. XII (Die felsige Flusslandschaft); W. Fraenger, Die Radierungen des Hercules Seghers: Ein physiognomischer Versuch, Erlenbach-Zurich and elsewhere 1922, pp. 55, 57; C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘Langs welken weg trok Hercules Seghers naar Italië?’, Oud Holland 44 (1927), pp. 56, 58; G. Knuttel Wzn., Hercules Seghers, Amsterdam [1941], pp. 41-42, 56; L.C. Collins, Hercules Seghers, Chicago 1953, pp. 48-49, 63, 72, 86; J. Houplain, ‘Sur les estampes d’Hercules Seghers', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, ser. 6, no. 49 (1957), p. 157; K. G. Boon, ‘Een notitie op een Seghers-prent uit de verzameling Hinloopen’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 8 (1960), pp. 3-11; W. van Leusden, Het grafisch-technisch probleem van de etsen van Hercules Seghers, Utrecht 1960, p. 11; E. Haverkamp-Begemann, Hercules Segers: The Complete Etchings, with a Supplement on Johannes Ruischer by E. Trautscholdt, Amsterdam and The Hague 1973, no. 14, and pp. 30 (incl. n. 7), 31, 43-45 (incl. nn. 84 and 86); J.G. van Gelder, 'The Labors of Hercules Seghers', Art News 66 (1967), no. 5, p. 28; E. Haverkamp-Begemann, Hercules Segers: The Complete Etchings, with a Supplement on Johannes Ruischer by E. Trautscholdt, Amsterdam and The Hague 1973, no. 14 I a, and p. 45; J. Rowlands, Hercules Segers, Amsterdam 1979, no. 55; I.M. de Groot, Landschappen. Etsen van de Nederlandse meesters uit de zeventiende eeuw, Amsterdam 1979, no. 49; F.W.H. Hollstein, Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1949-2010, XXVI (1981; Hercules Segers), no. 14 I a; J. van der Waals, De prentschat van Michiel Hinloopen. Een reconstructie van de eerste openbare papierkunstverzameling in Nederland, The Hague and Amsterdam 1988, p. 158 (n. 19) and Appendix 7, no. HB 14 I a; A. Stijnman, Engraving and Etching, 1400-2000: A History of the Development of Manual Intaglio Printmaking Processes, London and Houten 2012, pp. 216-17; H. Leeflang and P. Roelofs (eds.), Hercules Segers: Painter, Etcher, 2 vols., exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art) 2016-17, I, no. HB 14 I a

Citation

H. Leeflang, 2016, 'Hercules Segers, Mountain Valley with a Winding River [HB 14 I a], Amsterdam, c. 1622 - c. 1625', in J. Turner (ed.), Works by Hercules Segers in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.37256

(accessed 26 November 2024 00:36:53).