Hercules Segers Writers Name Institutes Name

Art Hercules Segers is probably the most mysterious and original print maker every

known; he is a born Flemish and is amongst the most notable Baroque artists of all times. His works are mainly based on illustrious landscapes, which are mostly engraved instead of painted with oil or other techniques. His method of etched prints and paintings has earned him much renown of being a distinguished artist. He was a son of a merchant and got apprenticed with a painter specialising in landscapes on pieces of wood. Hercules left his hometown because of religious conflicts and spent a large era of his life in Amsterdam where he got married and bought a huge house also. The house was sold afterwards as he was in heave debt and to cover his financial crisis. However, it is still a mystery that how did he manage to buy such a big property when he was under heavy debt. Hercules gained fame and recognition after his death when the surviving pieces of his art were found. Though Hercules had made a considerable number of prints and printed paintings but still very few of them are publicly known. He never auctioned all of his works as they were assumed to be meant for personal collection only. The reason that very few of the Hercules work are found, or recognised, is because he did not sign each of his works, which leaves many of them unrevealed. His master, Coninxloo, belonged to the generation of artists, which means that he was a seasoned artist and exerted great influence on his pupil Hercules Segers. His art of imprinting and making printed paintings is widely different form the traditional ways of painting and etching; interestingly, none i of his paintings and his ways match any of the existing artists of his times but he has influenced a number of notable painters. A traditional way of etching includes coating a metal surface with metal resistant wax and other material, the surface is scratched with needle to acquire the printed surface afterwards it is immersed into acid after which the engraved print appears on the metal. A single plate is known to be enough for up to two hundred printings. Segers introduced his

Art own way of imprinting and making his printed paintings; he used cloth and canvas to make his paintings and finished them in oil paints. Hercules Segers is also known for his experimental ways of making prints and paintings as each of his works are different from

each other. His techniques include the use of different colours, themes and contrasting colour tones to enhance the effects of his printed paintings. Hercules, usually, hand painted and coloured his prints, which gives neat definition to his works; instead of working in one single colour, which was usually black in those times, he experimented with different colours in single prints and made his phenomenal paintings. Segers, apart from his unique printed paintings, is also known for his invention of the process of lift-ground etching technique. The technique includes the process of using sugar solution to draw and make the imprinting design on the copper plated surface. The plate is covered with a thin resinous material and immersed into the hot water; the hot water causes the sugar granules dissolved in the solution to swell and make a print on the surface. One of the strikingly different features of Segers work is that many of his engravings have imperfect and rough surfaces. The surface of the metal plate gets roughened or destroyed when it is too thin for the acid to penetrate. It is assumed that Segers has left the imperfect marks visible to create original works; other than using metal surface, Hercules Segers has used other material also. Although few of the artists are known to have used finer surfaces like silk for their engravings but Segers is probably the very first one to have experimented with courser surfaces like linen and cotton for his works. He has never used readily available coloured papers in his works, which is rather surprising for the Hercules historians.

Art 1. River Valley with Four Trees

This landscape is one of the largest of Hercules printed paintings with the images of a natural landscape. Interestingly, Segers has made the same image of printed painting in reverse form also; the image has rough smudges, which he used to make the effects necessary for clouds. 2. Valley with Four Towers

The landscape shows Segers expertise in using dual colours of slight and dark shades; the landscape has used red colour on the background of olive green. The landscape shows the marks of his native architectural background of Northern Europe with a classical building.

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3. Distant View with a Mossy Tree Branch

The landscape is the representative of Segers technique of sugar lift and is presenting a view of one side of the moss tree with a figure walking along the road, the figure is very small and with only close examination can be visible. Segers has made triple views of the same painting each of it showing the different time of the day. 4. Ruins of the Abbey of Rijnsberg

This is one of Hercules Segers paintings that present the real building rather than an imaginary one; Segers has used tone to make a clear view of the ruins. The artist has paid

Art close attention to the details of the ruins, which has helped the historians in identifying the it as the ruins of Benedictine ruins of Rijnsberg. 5. View of Wageningen

Other than the Ruins of the Abbey of Rijnberg, this landscape is also based on the real place of a Dutch town in Wageningen in Gelderland. Segers has used intense details because of which the church beyond is as much visible as is the windmill in front of it. 6. Country-road with Trees and a Farmhouse

Art The landscape is differs from other paintings of the artist as it shows a huge clump of trees with a cottage. Segers has used tinted paper for its imprinting with the use of pen and brown ink, the method is nowhere to be imitated in any other works of Hercules Segers. 7. The House in the Woods

The landscape has been imprinted in two different ways; one on fine cotton with no colour while this one is on a somewhat courser fabric with thick dark colours. Segers has trimmed the imprint in a different manner than the other one, which has changed the atmosphere and outlook of both the prints. 8. The Enclosed Valley

Segers has used twenty imprints to make this single landscape and presents a view of a desolate valley. The imprint is made on beige linen cloth with brown, grey and blue hues.

Art 9. The Enclosed Valley

This is the entirely different view of the same previous landscape. The colour used is olive green and a grave tone with drypoint hatching vividly visible on the rocks. 10. Ruins of a Monastery

Segers has made two identical prints of the same plate. This one id trimmed to change the perspective of the imprint, the impression is completely different from its identical plate.

Art 11. Ruins of a Monastery

This imprint has the cross-hatched lines patch on top. The patch is assumed as Segers attempt to check the thickness of the surface. The landscape also has an identified watermark in it. 12. Rocky Mountains with a Forked Tree

The landscape has used the method of etching and sugar lift designed on a tinted paper. The scenario presents a view of valley from a high vantage point with hues of green, blue, brown and grey.

Art 13. Rocky Mountains with Tree Stumps

The artist has re-used an old imprinting plate copper for the making of this landscape print. The scene presents a gloomy image of a valley with dark blue and green colours to enhance the effect. 14. River Valley with a Waterfall

The technique used in this imprint is of etching and sugar-lift. The landscape shows some fault of irregular distribution of metal biting as a result of acid; they are probably left by the artist to create an image of rocks.

Art 15. River Valley with a Waterfall

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Like many of Segers works, this one and the one before it are created in pairs. The rough line present in previous one is less in this imprint, the biting is absent in the sky while some lines are more apparent than before. 16. Steep Cliffs Bordering a River Valley

The landscape is showing a grief setting with faint glistening ink to intensify the mood. The print appears to be handmade with pen and shows some traces of human and distant towns.

Art 17. Mountain Valley with Broken Pine Trees

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This is the only printed painting that shows a valley with bare trees. The landscape comprise of thick lines that shows heavy and deep cutting by the acid and blank edge as a result of presence of thick layer of wax. 18.Rocky Mountains with a Plateau

The landscape is painted in drypoint tone but not as strong as in the next painting. The painting has been introduced to sugar lift along with etching for a more defined atmospheric look.

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19. Rocky Mountains with a Plateau

This imprint has strong drypoint hatching; Seger implied different etching techniques to magnify different times of days. The landscape has used blue colour with delicate tone for clouds. 20. Rocky Mountain Valley with Waterfalls

The landscape is printed in light colour that gives it a different and subtle look. The clouds in the sky are characterised with a combination of thin etching lines with surface ad plate tones.

Art Endnotes C. Ackley, Printmaking in the Age of Rembrandt, exh.cat. Boston, 1981. K.G. Boon and J. Verbeek, Hercules Seghers, exh.cat. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 1967. L. Collins, Hercules Seghers, Chicago, 1953 S. Dackermann, Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color in Northern Renaissance and Baroque Engravings, Etchings, and Woodcuts, exh.cat. The Baltimore Museum of Arts, 2001. W. Fraenger, Die Radierungen des Hercules Seghers: ein Physiognomischer Versuch , Zurich, 1933. Grafiek van Hercules Seghers, exh.cat. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 1967. A. Griffiths, White Ink, in Print Quarterly8 (1991), pp.286290. E. Haverkamp-Begemann, Hercules Segers: The Complete Etchings, The Hague, 1974. Hercules Seghers, exh.cat. Museum Boymans Rotterdam, 1954.

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E. Hinterding et al., Rembrandt as a Printmaker, exh.cat. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - British Museum London, 2000. C.J. Holmes, 'The Landscape Work of Hercules Seghers', in The Burlington Magazine 52 (1928), pp. 208-221 W. van Leusden, The Etchings of Hercules Segers: An Enquiry into his Graphic Technique, Utrecht, 1960. G. Luijten (ed.), Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern Netherlandish Art, 1580-1620, Amsterdam, 1994.

Art J. Rowlands, Hercules Segers, London, 1979. J. Springer, Die Radierungen des Hercules Seghers, Berlin, 1910. J. van der Waals, De Prentschat van Michiel Hinloopen: Een reconstructive van de eerste openbare papierkunstverzameling in Nederland, The Hague-Amsterdam, 1988.

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