Aegidius Sadeler II (after) – Mountain Landscape with Hermit (after Paulus Bril)
etching and engraving, image 20.2 x 27 cm sheet 21.8 x 30.6 cm
Unframed – Price £200
‘Paulus Bril Inventor’ added to bottom left corner of the plate below the seated hermit, within the image.
This print has all the characteristics of Aegidius Sadeler, and indeed I purchased it as by him in 2010. However, when Sadeler’s print came up for auction in 2024 it showed his signature at the bottom of the image which this print does not. This print therefore is by an unknown engraver who shows considerable skill in providing a version in which the only noticeable differences, on close inspection, is small variations in the sky. The paper on which it is printed suggests that it is most likely a C17 copy. The print is priced accordingly.
Despite the change in attribution, the print is a fine example of a Sadeler/Bril engraving. Bril’s drawing Mountains with a Hermit (Louvre Inv. No. 19.779) from which this print is based, dates from the early 1590s. Sadeler could have done his engraving when he was in Rome in 1593. The hermit sits under a rocky outcropping reading. Above to the left, barely visible, are ruins, possibly from the area around Tivoli. Where Sadeler’s print is in reverse to Bril’s drawing, this version, being mirror image to Sadeler, is, by chance, correctly orientated to the Bril drawing.
Condition: Strong impression in very good condition. Print has been laid down on to a backing sheet (tan flecked paper – C18?) on which is written in ink ‘Raph et Egidiuis Sadeler fec’.