Seashore with a High Sea

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Magdalena van de Passe is among a small number of female printmakers in the early modern period to have made a name for herself during her life. She likely knew the painter Adam Willaerts, who lived in the same town of Utrecht, since she made this engraving after one of Willaert’s coastal scenes. Van de Passe enhanced the scene by adding a figure depicting the Old Testament prophet Elijah emerging from a cave to listen to God, with engraved quotations from 1 Kings 17-19 beneath. Her meticulous engraving style, characterized by diminutive and somewhat irregular marks, is suited to the weather-worn scene, with its rocky outcrops, dramatic waterspout, and rolling hills. Though the landscape depicted in this print is imaginary, the ship on the sea is a whaling vessel typical of Netherlandish manufacture of the 17th century.