Friday 7 November 2014

Hollar, Wenceslaus/Vaclav, Mulierum 1643.....etcher supremo!

Etchings from Hollar's Mulierum 1643. This is a fashionable woman from Naples.
Etchings from Hollar's Mulierum, London 1643.  This is a fashionable woman from London.
This is the title page of the 1643 edition of Hollar's Mulierum. Wenceslaus or Vaclav Hollar was a Bohemian etcher.       Born in Prague 13th July, 1607, he died in London on 25th March 1677, buried at St.Margaret's Church, Westminster. His earliest works are dated 1625-6. He was greatly influenced by Durer. In 1633 he moved to Cologne where he produced some his best works. In 1636 he attracted the notice of the famous nobleman and art collector Thomas Howard the 21st Earl of Arundel . He travelled with Arundel to Vienna and Prague and returned with him, and  remaining in the Earl's household for many years. After 1646 he earned his living by working for various authors and publishers. Hollar created  "View of Greenwich" during his first  year in England. The plate measured nearly 3 feet long, and he was paid 30/- for this. Throughout the English Civil War he worked in Antwerp where he produced some of his best known works. he illustrated many books. After the Great Fire of London he produced some of his famous "Views of London". The King sent him to Tangier in 1668. He lived for a further 8 years still working for booksellers including a large plate of Edinburgh dated 1670. He died on 25th March 1677, and was buried at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, London in 1677  sadly, in dire poverty.
Etching from Hollar's Mulierum 1643, a fashionable woman from Prague.


Fashionable woman from Bohemia. Etching from Hollar's Mulierum 1643.

Monday 3 November 2014

Cranes migrate South over France November 2014

Cranes fly South across France early November.

A Wood Tiger moth.


A colourful wood tiger moth rests on a geranium leaf on my bedroom windowsill. Usually seen from May to July on heaths scrubby grassland and in open woodland. It's food is a wide range of low growing plants.