Christian Rümelin

Christian Rümelin is Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the Musées d’art et d’histoire in Geneva, which houses one of the most outstanding collections of prints produced after World War II. He has published extensively on various aspects of printmaking, both Old Masters and contemporary.

Paul Coldwell’s Print and Matter

By

Best known to readers of this journal as a printmaker, Paul Coldwell is also active as a sculptor, though he has rarely shown these two bodies of work together. His 2015 retrospective at the University of Bradford therefore offered a singular opportunity to pull his metal and cast-resin sculptures (many cast from accessories of daily life), artist’s books and prints together in a single conversation Read More

The Divinity of Detail: Raphael and Johann Gotthard Müller

By

Left: Johann Gotthard von Müller, detail from La Madonna della Sedia (late 18th–early 19th century), engraving. ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Right: Raphael Morghen, detail from La Madonna della Sedia (late 18th–early 19th century), engraving, plate 42.3 × 36.5 cm, sheet 64 × 50 cm. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of William Gray from the collection of Francis Calley Gray, G2760. Photo: Imaging Department ©President and Fellows of Harvard College.

During the 18th century, regular discussions about prints occurred between engravers and the people commissioning the work, mostly about overall appearance and quality of execution and/or the terms of payment. One case, however, stands out for what it reveals about the visual interpretation Read More

Claude Lorrain and the Notion of Printed Arcadian Landscapes

By

Fig. 1. Claude Lorrain, Les deux paysages (The two landscapes) (ca. 1630), etching, 13 x 19.8 cm. Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The use of landscape as subject and background in prints dates back to the late 15th century, but new approaches appeared in Rome in the early 17th century. Claude Lorrain concentrated on the depiction of landscape from early in his career, and Joachim Sandrart described how he would go out into the Roman countryside with fellow artists to draw directly from nature. Read More