Autumn

Hessel Gerritsz|David Vinckboons

1610 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

Hessel Gerritsz was active primarily as a mapmaker but early in his career he produced and published a few prints after the main landscapist of his day in Amsterdam, David Vinckboons. This series of four prints combines a traditional theme, the seasons depicted with their associated activities – working the garden in spring, boating in summer, harvesting in autumn, and ice skating in winter – with depictions of monuments in the Dutch countryside. Here, each image is set against a depiction of a castle in the outskirts of the city of Utrecht. Both elegant figures and peasants populate the scenes. An intense interest in depiction of the monuments and countryside of the United Provinces, a federation of provinces that had recently declared its independence from Spain, took hold during the early seventeenth century.

Artist

Hessel Gerritsz|David Vinckboons

Date

1610

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittlesey Fund and Dr. and Mrs. Arthur H. Elkind Gift, 2018