Hollar, Wenceslaus (Prague 1607 – London 1677). Nauis Bellica Hollandica. Three-masted one-deck vessel with guns run out at anchor to the right. The fore-yard is lowered, on deck numerous sailors. On the right in the middle distance and background four further three-masters at anchor in pairs, far left at the horizon a fifth one under sails. Etching + engraving. Inscribed: WHollar fecit / 1647, otherwise as above. Sheet size 14.4 x 23.4 cm.

From the 12-sheet set of Dutch ships Parthey 1261-72 ( Davidsohn 509 [1920]:

from 1647, here present in the first state  before  address + number. – Not in the rich Hollar part at Baron Lanna (1895) who beside a presumed copy of the title owned but two sheets of the set, one of which additionally only in the second state with the number lower right, and also missing in the 1984 Berlin exhibition catalogue enumerating only three other sheets of the set. – Comp. the drawing of three-master with lowered yards likewise at anchor to the right as frontispiece in Hollar’s Journey on the Rhine, Prague, 1965. – Large coat-of-arms watermark. – Warm-toned, evenly weakly browned impression with up to 2 mm wide paper margin around the borderline. Upper left by old hand in ink “500”.

“ The basic characteristics … of Hollar’s work are implied in their author’s approach to reality. Hollar was fundamentally attracted by objective forms, by their uniqueness and endless variety, and the texture and quality of things in the world about him. His aim was to seize that reality, preserve it, and communicate it to the spectator ”

(Miloš V. Kratochvíl, Hollar’s Journey on the Rhine, as above, p. 23).

And

“ The storm-moved sea with heavy warships, the smooth surface of the sea with light sailing barges, the Rhine region animated by the wide river … all reveal his understanding of nature and his tender conception of its beauties ”

(F. A. Borovský in Thieme-Becker XVII, 376 ff).

Offer no. 28,779 / EUR  1480. / Export price EUR  1406. (c. US$ 2270.) + shipping