Landscape

Throughout the seventeenth century, landscapes flourished across various artistic media in the Netherlands. In part this was because of the great pride in the native countryside inspired independence from Spain in 1609. Around 1614, Boetius Adams Bolswert published the Cottage Series, a set of rural landscape etchings in the style of Abraham Bloemaert, a beloved landscape painter. With increasing nationalism, artists endeavored to prove that their country’s scenery was just as praiseworthy as the traditionally acclaimed landscapes of Italy or Greece. Artists worked toward aesthetic perfection rather than strictly adhering to the observed environment, resulting in careful composites of visually satisfying and distinctively local elements. Collectors’ interest in these works was closely bound up with of their Dutch patriotism. With a print series such as Bolswert’s, which functioned like an unbound book, viewers may imagine themselves immersed in the rustic Dutch scenery. Seeing an opportunity in the success of these early series, print publishers like Claes Jansz Visscher (1587–1652) inundated the market with knockoff sets. Visscher’s signature is visible in the lower right.