Description

Description: We offer an etching by the Flemish artist Valentin Lefevre [Lefebvre]. The plate is 10" x 15 1/8" and printed on handmade laid paper that is 10 1/2" x 15 3/4". Lettered within image, in lower left "Titian in." "V. lefebre del. sculp." in the lower middle margin and "J. Van Campen Formis Venetÿs." at the lower right. After Domenico Campagnola (formerly attributed to Titian). Published in 1682 by by Jacobus van Campen in Venice, one of a series of fifty-three from the ‘Opera Selectiora’. It is a hypnotically detailed landscape with a bearded man playing a hurdy-gurdy in the central foreground as a young woman grasps his shoulder. Curators note from the British Museum: "This is a copy in reverse after a woodcut by Domenico Campagnola of which a preparatory drawing exists in the Louvre, although the design was traditionally attributed to Titian." Valentin Lefebre (1637 – 1677) was a painter and etcher born in Brussels. He settled in Venice where he produced the ‘Opera Selectiora’ of etchings after Titian, Veronese, and Campagnola. The series was left unfinished at his early death, and finally published in 1682 by Jacques van Campen. Item #PR00109.

Condition: The paper has been trimmed to approximately 1/4" around the platemark. There are four vertical creases across the image, the most prominent fold is at the left margin. On verso there is a 4" strip of adhesive tape at the top margin in the middle and hinging residue at all four corners. There is a very light damp stain in the sky area, otherwise in good condition.