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Hill-Stone, Inc.
The Tree Man
after Hieronymus Bosch, The Tree Man. Etching with engraving. On paper with a watermark of 1716.
Sheet: 370 x 262 mm
description
After the drawing by Bosch in Vienna.[1]
[1] See Fritz Koreny, Bosch Die Zeichnungen, catalogue raisonné, Vienna 2012, cat. no. 7, as Bosch, autograph. The drawing bears a late 16th century reference to Bruegel.
Unsigned, and without any printed or manuscript inscriptions on the sheet. Of the greatest rarity; our impression is one of five known impressions. The other four are at the British Museum, The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Noordbrabantsmuseum, S’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands and the Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri.
In excellent, unwashed condition, the paper lightly toned, with small margins; on laid paper with a FIN D’ANGOUMOIS 1716 watermark. The impressions in London, Amsterdam and S’Hertogenbosch are on the same paper; the impression in Saint Louis is trimmed outside the circular image, but within the platemark, thus outside the area at the bottom of the sheet where the same watermark is visible in the other impressions. The structure of the paper of the Saint Louis impression is congruent with that of our impression.
Here it is extremely important to note the mistaken identity of the etching, from the time of its execution. The etcher thought that they were reproducing a drawing by Peter Bruegel, on account of the annotation on the drawing, even if present scholarship shows clearly that the author of the drawing was Hieronymus Bosch. Our etching represents the most famous creation of the artist, even one which may be seen now as the most emblematic of Bosch’s art[1]. It constitutes a pungent combination of irrational forms and their realistic physically details, and as such has no peer in the history of art.
[1] Marisa Bass, in Beyond Bosch, cat .no 4, p. 93. In fairness to Bass, the Saint Louis sheet has no apparent watermark, and she may not have been aware of the watermarks of the BM or RPK impressions.
[1] See Fritz Koreny, Bosch Die Zeichnungen, catalogue raisonné, Vienna 2012, cat. no. 7, as Bosch, autograph. The drawing bears a late 16th century reference to Bruegel.
Unsigned, and without any printed or manuscript inscriptions on the sheet. Of the greatest rarity; our impression is one of five known impressions. The other four are at the British Museum, The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Noordbrabantsmuseum, S’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands and the Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri.
In excellent, unwashed condition, the paper lightly toned, with small margins; on laid paper with a FIN D’ANGOUMOIS 1716 watermark. The impressions in London, Amsterdam and S’Hertogenbosch are on the same paper; the impression in Saint Louis is trimmed outside the circular image, but within the platemark, thus outside the area at the bottom of the sheet where the same watermark is visible in the other impressions. The structure of the paper of the Saint Louis impression is congruent with that of our impression.
Here it is extremely important to note the mistaken identity of the etching, from the time of its execution. The etcher thought that they were reproducing a drawing by Peter Bruegel, on account of the annotation on the drawing, even if present scholarship shows clearly that the author of the drawing was Hieronymus Bosch. Our etching represents the most famous creation of the artist, even one which may be seen now as the most emblematic of Bosch’s art[1]. It constitutes a pungent combination of irrational forms and their realistic physically details, and as such has no peer in the history of art.
[1] Marisa Bass, in Beyond Bosch, cat .no 4, p. 93. In fairness to Bass, the Saint Louis sheet has no apparent watermark, and she may not have been aware of the watermarks of the BM or RPK impressions.
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