Cleveland Museum of Art

Pastoral Landscape with Ruins and a Ford

Gerhardt Janssen

Date

1722

Medium

etching and open-bite on laid paper

Culture

Netherlands

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Janssen’s prints depict figures, trees, and architectural details rendered light against a dark background, a reverse effect of the typical etching of the period, which reminds our modern eye of a photographic negative. The artist might have been familiar with such a reversal of light and dark through the practice of reverse glass painting, in which he was trained, and indeed, the figures glow with an idiosyncratic solarizing effect, almost as if they are part of a window. The technique was apparently invented by Janssen and is unique in early modern art. This print was made from an iron print plate that was etched in acid in stages, creating a textured, almost corrosive effect.

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