BLOEMAERT, Frederik, after Abraham BLOEMAERT

[Het tekenboek (Bloemaert’s Drawing Book)]

Amsterdam: Nicholas Visscher, circa 1679

 

First published edition, after the excessively rare self-issued compilations circa 1650 - 1656 (three or four copies known).  Folio, bound (as to first seven parts) in fours on self-stubs (sheets 13-3/4 x 10-1/2 in., 35 x 26.7 mm).  118 (of 140) engraved plates in first through seventh parts (chiaroscuro title to first part and 3 further chiaroscuro plates 60, 76, 140), and 16 (of 20) engraved plates of the additional "pars octava" (chiaroscuro title to first part cut outside framing line and mounted, title to second part not present).  Collates [1 l., binder’s blank], [1 l., original blank], 134 ll. (of 160) with plates recto numbered 1-160, [1 l., binder’s blank]; lacks 26 excised plates 20, 21 (title, second part), 40, 42, 43, 49, 50, 63, 74, 75, 78, 87, 97, 98, 103, 109, 112, 122, 123, 124, 129, 134, 150, 151, 153, 158.  Printed, as to first seven parts, on fine laid paper bearing watermarks 8 x 4 cm of a fleur-de-lis supported by a smaller inverted fleur-de-lis in an oblong pointed shield surmounted with a five-pointed crown having a fleur-de-lis central point (same paper and watermark for last plate; the rest of “pars octava,” which is differently sewn, is on very slightly coarser, darker paper, having “A G” as well as similar fleur-de-lis watermarks; heavier paper watermarked “I V” for original blank and mount of first plate).  Laid in loose is a probably contemporary sheet of drawings in unidentified hand on laid paper 30 x 19 cm (irregular) with watermark of a beveled cross in a pointed oblong shield, having perspective studies in graphite and brown ink on one side, studies in graphite of noses and mouths on the other side replicating those at the upper center-left portion of plate 2.  Full English calf (the binding 14-3/16 x 11 in., 36 x 28 cm), the covers probably 18th century with perimeter gilt vine roll, re-backed in 19th century with spine in six compartments with raised bands tooled with gilt dashed lines, burgundy morocco title label in second compartment with “Bloemaert’s Drawing Book” lettered in gilt, gilt tooled stylized tulips between gilt fretwork bands in others, renewed endpapers, all edges cut, probably rebacked for the 14th Earl of Derby (his engraved armorial bookplate datable after his 1859 investiture as K.G.).  Condition very good, the book block overall remarkable saving the excisions, a few skinned and darkened areas on the covers, edge-wear and corner-wear, the plates bright and almost entirely devoid of even the slightest foxing, the impressions printed deeply and clearly with tone, the sheets clean and unpressed with only infrequent negligible blemishes, the extreme edges age-darkened.

 

Frederik Bloemaert (circa 1614 -1690) engraved this artist’s model book after the designs of his father Abraham (1566 - 1651).  These designs are incorporated in the “Cambridge Album” of 161 drawings held by the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (PD.166-1963, ex-Thomas Dawson, William Esdaile, Fairfax Murray and Bruce Ingram), arranged in order with later inscribed numbers corresponding generally to the plates here.  The Bloemaerts self-issued the engraved compilation circa 1650-1656; only three or four copies are known: British Museum (160 plates), BnF Cabinet des Estampes, collection Marolles (129 plates), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (not catalogued on-line) and possibly Bodleian Library, Oxford.  In 1679 Nicolas Visscher published the 160-plate compilation; the title pages of the parts have (with variations) his “Nicolaus Visscher excudit” added to “Abrahamus Bloemaert inventor” and “Fredericus Bloemaert filius fecit.”  The 1679 publication is only relatively less rare than the unobtainable self-issue; the available census includes at most 15 known copies of both issues.  A possible explanation for the excision of 26 plates in this copy, given their distribution among parts and subjects and the inclusion of one title plate, is that a cadet member of the Stanley family took the only path to securing a mini-compilation outside the family succession.

 

The six titles here present (the second having been excised) for the first seven parts are in early state, lacking the added engraved words “Cum Privilegio Ordinum Hollandiae et Westfrisiae,” here evident only on the title to “octava pars,” the last part which is printed uniformly (excepting the final plate) on very slightly coarser and darker paper with variant watermarks and sewing.  Further, the concluding plate 160 is here the Predication of Saint John (Hollstein 267, B.M. D,7.103), printed on the same finer paper of the first seven parts, rather than the Landscape with a Dove-Cote usually found (Hollstein 266, B.M. D,7.104, present in the British Museum copy and, according to the last owner’s notes, the National Gallery copy).  Obtaining a privilege in 17th century Holland was an arduous and expensive process, undertaken by publishers not from compulsion but voluntarily to forestall piracy.  Before obtaining the privilege Visscher must have printed the first seven parts of this copy on the thinner but finer paper with self-stubs in quires of fours.  A comparison with the next edition, by Ottens in 1740, digitalized complete by the Warburg Institute on-line for study purposes, is as day to night; the plates in the present Visscher issue are deeply impressed and clearly printed with even tone.

 

The influence of Bloemaert’s Drawing Book cannot be underestimated.  Formed from the generation of Spranger and Goltzius, Abraham Bloemaert became the artistic father of a daunting march of Utrecht masters: Hendrik ter Brugghen, Gerrit van Honthorst, Andries and Jan Both, Hendrik de Keyser and Paulus Moreelse make only the beginning of a list.  His model book compiled his models, not copies from others, and the Bloemaerts were among early innovators adding chiaroscuro to the engraved line, advancing printmaking.

 

Provenance:

Earls of Derby, Knowsley Hall (engraved bookplate of Edward Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby), possibly part of the dispersal at Christie Manson & Woods, 1952-3.

Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow, acquired 1992 (his autograph notes and their acquisition number 92-84-7 on front free endleaf verso).

 

Literature:

Bolten, Jaap, Method and Practice: Dutch and Flemish Drawing Books 1600-1750 (Pfalz: Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt, 1985), pp. 48-67.

Hollstein, F.W.H. et al., Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700 (Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberge, 1949), under F. Bloemaert, nos. 36-155.

British Museum, on-line catalogue entries for L,83.1 et seq.

Fitzwilliam Museum, on-line catalogue entries for PD.166-1963.ff.1-166.

Warburg Institute, on-line digitalized complete copy of 1740 Ottens issue, CDH 375.

Detail