Landscape in the Dark Manner

In contrast to Rembrandt’s dark, linear etching and burin work, landscape etcher Allart van Everdingen created a group of evocative, softly toned nocturnal prints and book illustrations using an early form of mezzotint engraving. Here a dilapidated house and a church spire emerge from the murky darkness. The chronology of Everdingen’s ten early mezzotints remains inconclusive, for none are dated. However, this plate’s variety of intaglio media and the seepage of ink into the margins suggest an inventive search for new tonal effects on the part of the artist, which likely occurred before he learned about standard mezzotint methods in the later 1660s.