ANTHONY VAN DYCK (1599-1641), Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus

ANTHONY VAN DYCK (1599-1641)
Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus
etching
circa 1633-1640
on laid paper, watermark Strasbourg Lily
a very fine, early and tonal impression of the rare first state (of five)
before letters
printing with many vertical wiping scratches, the plate impurities and foul-biting very prominent
with small margins
in very good condition
Plate 243 x 157 mm.
Sheet 253 x 169 mm.

Morris Schapiro (early 20th Century), Baltimore (Lugt 1918bis); his sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 16 January 1945, lot 138 ('Extremely rare') ($ 650).
Albert W. Blum (1882-1952), Switzerland and Short Hills, New Jersey (Lugt 79b); presumably acquired at the above sale; then by descent.
Private Collection, Paris (cited in New Hollstein).

Mauquoy-Hendrickx 5; New Hollstein 4

Conditions of Sale
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Lot Essay

This etched portrait by van Dyck reverses the painted version on panel from 1530, which is today in the collection of the Galleria Nazionale in Parma.
To our knowledge, no other impression of the first state has been offered at auction within the last thirty years. The present example is recorded by Simon Turner in the census of impressions published in his New Hollstein catalogue of the prints of Anthony van Dyck.