Cornelis Bega

17th century etching black and white dramatic window figure scene

circa 1650

"The Meeting" is an original etching by Cornelis-Pietersz Bega. It depicts a confrontation between two groups of figures. Publisher: Pearce #48. 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" art 10 1/4" x 10 3/8...

François Vivares was known to have produced several copies of images after older masters, such as, in this case, Rembrandt van Rijn. In this set, Vivares reproduces "The Quacksalver" (1635, Bartsch 129), "Beggar man and beggar woman conversing" (1630, Bartsch 164), and "Beggar Seated Warming...

Jan Gillisz van Vliet (1605–1668) was a Dutch Golden Age artist and student of Rembrandt. He worked with Rembrandt between 1628 and 1637, inspired by his master's work. Like Rembrandt, van Vliet made a series of beggar figures, though often with a greater degree of satire and expressiveness. For example, this image of a rat catcher...

"Perseus and Andromeda" is an original etching by Scottish artist Alexander Runciman, signed in the lower left area of the plate. It depicts Perseus on the left swinging his shield and a young woman, Andromeda, on the right shielding her gaze. Andromeda is to be sacrificed to a sea-monster to save her city, but Perseus rescues her from this fate by slaying the beast. 5 3/4" x 9 1/2" art 16 1/4" x 20 1/4" frame Alexander Runciman (1736-1785) was a Scottish painter of historical and mythological subjects. He was born in Edinburgh, and studied at the Foulis Academy, Glasgow, and from 1750 to 1762 he was apprenticed to the landscape painter Robert Norie, later becoming a partner in the Norie family firm. He also worked as a stage painter for the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh. In 1767, he went to Rome, where he spent five years. During Runciman's stay in Italy he became acquainted with other artists such as Henry Fuseli and the sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel...

'The Smoker (Le Fumeur)' is an original etching by the celebrated Dutch painter and printmaker Cornelis-Pietersz Bega. It presents a genre scene of the type Bega was best known for: Bega's principal subjects were genre representations of taverns, domestic interiors and villages. He depicted nursing mothers, prostitutes, drunks, gamblers and fools such as quack doctors and alchemists. In this case, he shows a man seated on a chair with his foot on a flat stool and holding a smoking pipe. For Bega, this representation was more of a caricature than it was an image of a specific person, and such genre scenes would have held allegorical and symbolic meaning for the seventeenth-century viewer. During the seventeenth century, the Dutch of all levels of society consumed tobacco and alcohol, and these were an important part of the Dutch economy and a major source of wealth. At the same time, however, moralists and ministers sought to curb intoxication: they openly described drinking and smoking as sinful, immoral, and a general threat to one’s reputation. This paradox is reflected in prints such as this, which inherently carry the national pride of the Dutch economy alongside a moral warning in a print that could be just as easily consumed and collected. 2.5 x 2.25 inches, print 12.38 x 10.38 inches, frame Framed to conservation standards using archival materials including 100 percent rag matting and mounting materials. Housed in a gold finish Spanish-style wood moulding. Overall good and stable condition; margins cut to plate; some wrinkling in the corners from previous mounting; housed in a new custom frame. Cornelis Bega was born into prosperous circumstances. His mother, Maria Cornelis, inherited half the estate (gold, silver, paintings, drawings and prints) and all of the red chalk drawings of her father, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, a renowned Mannerist artist. Bega's father was Pieter Jansz Begijn (d 1648), a gold and silversmith. Like other family members, Bega was probably Catholic. Houbraken's claim that Bega studied with Adriaen van Ostade is likely to be correct; this was probably before 24 April 1653, when Bega joined Vincent Laurentsz. van der Vinne in Frankfurt for a journey through Germany, Switzerland and France. Bega had returned to Haarlem by 1 September 1654, at which time he joined the Guild of St Luke; he was already a competent draughtsman, as indicated by his first extant dated work, Interior with a Nursing Mother (1652; Frankfurt am Main, Städel. Kstinst.), and by a remarkable double portrait (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) drawn by him and Leendert van der Cooghen in 1654. Bega painted, drew, etched and made counterproofs in a wide variety of materials on different types of small-scale supports. He may have been the first Dutch artist to make monotypes, but this remains controversial. Approximately 160 paintings, 80 drawings and six monotypes by Bega have been catalogued, as well as around 34 etchings. Bega's principal subjects were genre representations of taverns, domestic interiors and villages. He depicted nursing mothers, prostitutes, drunks, smokers, gamblers and fools such as quack doctors and alchemists. Less common subjects include the ridiculed or pestered woman, as in Two Figures and Mother with a Spirits Bottle (c. 1662; Gouda, Stedel, Museum Catharina Gasthuis) and The Inn (etching), as well as witty satires on traditional scenes of middle-class music-makers, such as the Music Lesson (1663; Paris, Petit Palace). Bega's early paintings, such as the Weaver's Family (c. 1652; St Petersburg, Hermitage), are freely executed, dark and coarse, recalling the many-figured peasant subjects of van Ostade. Between c. 1660 and 1664 he began to paint genre scenes with fewer figures, which are finely articulated, colourful and psychologically expressive, for example Two Men Singing (1662; Dublin, N.G.). His exquisite, late fijnschilderen ('fine painting') manner, evident in The Alchemist (1663; Malibu, Getty Museum), compares well with that of Gerrit Dou. As a draughtsman Bega is noted for his single-figure studies, executed mainly in black and white chalk on blue paper or red chalk on white paper. None of the studies, which were drawn naer het leven (from life), seem to relate to a painting or etching. Bega traded drawings or shared models with other artists of the Haarlem school, including van der Cooghen, Gerrit Berckheyde, Dirck Helmbreker and Cornelis Visscher. These artists drew chalk figure studies in a very similar style, characterised by regular and precise parallel shading and well-defined forms; their drawings, especially those of Bega and Berckheyde, have been frequently confused. Unlike the realistic figure studies, Bega's etchings depict interiors with figures or single figures in the manner of van Ostade; the compositions, often with masterful chiaroscuro effects, reflect most closely the paintings of the 1650s. Bega is likely to have remained in Haarlem, where he paid dues to the Guild in 1661. He probably died from the plague; fees for his expensive funeral at St. Bavo's were paid on 30 August 1664. Among the artists he influenced were Thomas Wijck, Jan Steen, Richard Brakenburg (1650-1702) and Cornelis Dusart. Painters such as R. Oostrzaen ( fl ?1656) and Jacob Toorenvliet...

"The Pipe Smoker" is an original etching by Cornelis-Pietersz Bega. It depicts a man sitting at a table with his pipe. Publisher: Pearce #38. 3 1/2" x 3 1/4" art 13 5/8" x 11 3/4" f...

Noble Coats of Arms is an original etching, interesting impression in the late edition of noble coats of arms, engraved by Jacques Callot and publis...

“Testa quasi colossale di Marco Aurelio” (Almost colossal head of Marco Aurelio) is a beautiful black and white burin on paper, realized by the Italian artist Pietro Fontana (Bassano Romano,1762 – Rome, 1837), after Teodoro Matteini (Pistoia, 1754 - Venice, 1831), as the inscriptions on plates on lower margins report “Teodoro Matteini delineò./ Pietro Fontana incise a bollino Roma”. This original print is numbered on plate in Roman numerals on higher margin: “Tom II. /Tav. XXV" and is a plate from the series "Illustrazioni de'Monumenti scelti Borghesiani già esistenti nella Villa sul Pincio (..)date ora per la prima volta in luce dal cav. Gio. Gherardo De Rossi e da Stefano Piale sotto la guida di Vincenzo Feoli", by Ennio Quirino Visconti, published by Stamperia de Romanis in Rome, 1821. This old master’s original prints shows a precious piece of the Borghese's collection, the marble bust of the Roman philosopher and writer and one of the "good Roman Emperor" (according to Edward Gibbon) Marco Aurelio, represented in neoclassical style and with the traditional iconography with a thick hair and a long beard. In excellent conditions with a usual yellowing of the paper on the lower margin and some light signs of the time with an imperceptible weaving of the paper on the lower right corner, this wonderful burin preserved his fresh impression. Illustrazioni de' Monumenti scelti Borghesiani This collection in two volumes is a beautifully detailed catalog of classical sculptures collected by Prince Borghese (1730-1800) in his Villa on the Pincio. Ennio Quirino Visconti (1751 - 1818) wrote the texts that accompany the large branches depicting. To these writings, which were available by the son of the illustrious archaeologist, the publishers added only a few illustrations relating to some minor monument of which copper had already been engraved. The engraved title-plate are signed by draughtsmen like Agostino Tofanelli, Stefano Tofanelli, Bernardino Nocchi, Domenico de Angelis or Teodoro Matteini, and by engravers Pietro Fontana Veneto, P. Vitali, Pietro Bettelini, Giovanni Folo Veneto, Giovanni Brunetti da Ravenna, Giovanni Ottaviani, Francesco Cecchini, Gio. Batta. Leonetti, Girolamo Carattoni, Domenico Cunego, Luigi Cunego, Alessandro Mochetti, Luigi Pizzi, Angelo Campanella or Giacomo Bossi. The Volume I shows ancient full-length statues, of the Borghese warrior by Agasias (two plates), Greek gods and heroes and Roman famous historical figures; the last two plates represents antique Egyptian deities. There are plates representing ancient bas-reliefs, sarcophagi, of mythological subjects, the Borghese Vase, portrait busts, a vase on an altar, two statues of Amor; and two modern statues, by Bernini (the Apollo and Daphne, and the David). «Très bel ouvrage» writes Brunet, «Grand ouvrage, le seul qui mérite, parmi ceux sur la villa Borgese, de figurer dans le chapitre aux Galeries et Collections» Vinet said, looking at this plate. Pietro Fontana (Bassano Romano,1762 – Rome, 1837) The Italian artist and engraver, Pietro Fontana was active in Rome and specialized in subjects dealing with the Vatican and the Papacy. He started his career as a student of Raffaello Morghen...

This Map of Anverpia is an original etching hand colored realized by George Braun and Franz Hogenberg as part of the famous Atlas "Civitates Orbis Ter...

Artist's proof, printed on antique laid paper, large margins, representing an “antique marble vase in the gallery of the palazzo Barberini” as he r...

The same urn, in perspective Beautiful artist proof, printed on antique laid paper, large margins, showing a precious urn. Etching with good contrasts and sharp details, signed on pl...

Christ and the Samaritan Woman is an original artwork realized in 1669. Original black and white etching. This artwork was realized by Jan de Bissch...