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SERIES OF 16 SHEEP PRINTS AFTER PAULUS POTTER
BYE, Marcus de, after Paulus POTTER. [Sheep in Landscapes].
[Amsterdam?], [Petrus Schenk, jr.?], ca. 1745 (etched 1664). A complete series of 16 numbered etchings (each 11 x 13.5 cm) showing sheep in landscapes, the first also showing a water trough with a sphinx and the last showing a shed. Mounted in 4 modern passe-partouts.
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A complete series of sixteen etchings of sheep (and one ram) in hilly landscapes, first executed in 1664 by Marcus de Bye (1638/39-ca. 1689) after drawings by the great animal painter Paulus Potter (1625-1654). They appear here in their later (apparently third) states, printed and published ca. 1745. The first shows two sheep, one drinking from a water trough topped by a sphinx, with the side of the trough signed "M De Bye fecit 1664." The last shows a sheep coming out of a shed and looking back at a man in the background, with a small board hanging on the wall of the shed with the date "1660." Others show sheep grazing, nursing, sitting, peeing, etc., occasionally with buildings, people or fences in the background, besides trees and bushes. The sphinx and the craggy hills suggest a more exotic location than the Netherlands.
Petrus Schenk II (1693-1775) acquired the plates in 1726 and probably published the prints in their present state ca. 1745. The copper plates later passed to (August?) Jean in Paris, where his widow began printing them again. Prints 6-7, 9-11 and 13-15 have vertical chainlines and often show part of a watermark or countermark along one long edge, so they were probably printed on oblong quarto leaves. Prints 1-5, 8, 12 and 16 have vertical chainlines and occasionally show a watermark or countermark in the middle of the leaf. Although there are at least two paper stocks, one for the prints with vertical chainlines and one for those with horizontal chainlines, both are fine ("fin") paper from Périgord, watermarked with an Amsterdam coat of arms on a platform, and all sixteen prints were probably printed at about the same time. One paper stock (in the prints with vertical chainlines) is countermarked "D Perie|fin|[Perigord 1742]" (the place and date are cut off here, but the mark and countermark are very close to Heawood 408), while another (in the prints with horizontal chainlines), difficult to see, is countermarked "Le Mai(s)tre [or possibly L Mathieu?]|fin|Perigord." If those with horizontal chainlines were printed on oblong folio leaves, the present examples must have been printed on a mixed paper stock, because most show no watermark, and the title-print appears to show initials, difficult to make out.
The prints have been trimmed close to the borders (shaving the numbers in the first few prints), but are in good condition, with a minor defect in the paper of one print, not affecting the image, and with an occasional minor spot. A masterful series of etchings from the Dutch golden age, showing sheep in landscapes.
