Four seasons – Jacob de Wit (1695 – 1754)

ALLEGORIES ON THE FOUR SEASONS Four drawings in pen and washed ink by Jacob de Wit (1695 – 1754). Size…

ALLEGORIES ON THE FOUR SEASONS

Four drawings in pen and washed ink by Jacob de Wit (1695 – 1754). Size each approx. 14.5 x 20.5 cm.

In an era of artistic decline, Jacob de Wit was the most important 18th-century Dutch painter. He was considered to be “the Rubens of his time”. De Wit is best known for his religious work and the many door, chimney and ceiling pieces he made for the houses along Heren- and Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. Many of those houses and the works of De Wit therein still exist today. Since many of the families who lived in Amsterdam in those days had country villas, de Wit also painted in houses in the fashionable areas of Haarlem and the Vecht river.

De Wit himself also made etchings. These four drawings of allegories on the four seasons, are studies for a series of etchings originally published on one page.

Literature: the etchings are described in Nagler’s “Neues Allgemeines Künstler Lexicon” (1835-1852), volume XXI, p. 561, no. 16.As well as in Christiaan Kramm’s “Levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamse kunstschilders, graveurs en en bouwmeesters” (1857), page 1874-1875.

Price: SOLD