COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING – “THE WRITING MASTER” from the original painting by Gerard Dow, and published in the mid 1800’s.  The means by which a copperplate is engraved gives it more detail and depth to the picture.  Copperplate engravings are seen as the most perfect means of reproducing a painting or other forms of visual art, thus giving it the most artistic value of any form of engraving.  This engraving is in very good condition.  The actual engraving measures 7 7/8” x 6”, and is matted to 16” x 20” for easy framing. 

      Gerard (or Gerrit) Dow (Dov or Dou), as he himself spells his name, is one of the best of the Dutch ‘genre’ painters.  In the mid 1800’s The Dresden Gallery possessed a collection of 16 ‘genre’ paintings by Dow, some of which are perfect gems.  Dow is no less remarkable for his keen observation and his great sagacity in choosing his subjects, which are taken from the domestic life of the lower classes, than for the softness and mellowness of the colours and the technical treatment and the lights of his pictures.  One of the most charming of them is his ‘Writing-master’, distinguished by all the minuteness in the details of character, and all the charm of his careful and elaborate finish.  It is doubtful, whether, as some say, the artist intended to portray himself in the old man with those gentle, good-nature features, prematurely old, and expressive of a scrupulous conscientiousness; but it is evident that our artist may fairly be considered as a prototype of this picture.  Dow’s contemporaries laugh at his punctiliousness and fastidiousness.  Among the many means which he employed in painting, they also mention a camera obscura, and they say that for the most insignificant trifles he used to employ models, and in copying them he was so fastidious, that he would spend more than three days in painting a broomstick, as Joachim von Sandrart says, in describing a visit which he paid Dow in his studio, pointing out, at the same time, many interesting traits of his regular and studious life.  The great number of pictures, however, which Dow has painted, seems to contradict the opinion that, as might be inferred from the minutely painted broomstick, he was slow in working.  There is but little to be said of Dow’s life.  His father was Jan Dow, a native of Friesland; he was borrn in Leyden in 1607; according to his former biographer relying upon an unfounded statement of Houbraken, he is said to have been born in 1613.  E. Kollof infers from the inscription of the ‘Wassersuchtigen’ in the Louvre, that the artist was born in 1598, but from the portrait of Dow painted by himself, which is in the Pinacothek of Munich, it is evident that he painted it in 1663, at the age of 56.  He died in Leyden, or as others say, in Haarlem, soon after the year 1672, this being the last year mentioned on his pictures. – Dow first painted on glass with Peter Kouwenhoven, and then from 1628 till 1630, he took to painting in oil in Rembrandt’s studio.  He obtained very good prices for his pictures.  The East-India-Company, among others, paid 4000 florins for a picture, which they intended to present to Charles II of England.  Von Spiering, the Swedish ambassador at The Hague, is said to have acquired the right of refusal of any of Dow’s pictures by paying Dow a yearly pension of 1000 florins.  The prices paid for his pictures after his death were higher still.  The Electro - Palatine is said to have paid 30,000 florins for a picture of Dow’s, which he intended to present to Prince Eugene.  The picture, which is now in the Louvre, called ‘The Village shopkeeper’, was sold in the year 1716 for 1200 Dutch florins, in Leyden in 1766 for 7150 florins, in 1777 for 15,600 livres, in 1784 for 16,901 livres, and at last in 1793 for 34,850 livres.

                                                                                                By Carl Clauss

IMPORTANT TO NOTE

Antique prints, engravings, and lithographs are printing processes, which use steel, copper, stone or wood blocks or plates to produce a picture on paper.

Most antique prints and engravings, which are seen on the internet today, are bookplates.  Because they are pages from a book, there are multiple copies in existence.  This does not, however, mean that they are "reproductions" that have been printed recently.  Because they were, at some point, part of books, some have been preserved in excellent condition, while others show signs of age, as yellow spots or darkness on the edge of the page from being handled.

Engravings, and lithographs are high quality pieces of art, as it took a highly trained artist many hours of work to produce one.  Although there may be multiple copies still in existence, the date of the item should be stated in the auction, thus giving the buyer an idea of its age.

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