GEORG ANDREAS WOLFGANG
1631 Chemnitz – Augsburg 1716
89 Bird Hunters with Dogs. 1661 After J. H. Schönfeld
Etching and engraving. 27.5 x 20.9 cm From Nagler 46; Krapf 85; exhib. cat. Johann Heinrich Schönfeld, Ulm 1967 no. 217; Pée NS 15 Provenance: Amédée Faure (Lugt 115)
Splendid early impression, still with partially inky platemark. Displaying wide margins. Pristine. G. A. Wolfgang was one of the most prolific engravers working after models by J. H. Schönfeld, who settled in Augsburg in 1651/52 following a twelve-year stay in Italy. Initially, Schönfeld seems to have sought access to the market by producing small-scale genre paintings depicting soldiers, shepherds, and hunters. In 1661, Wolfgang published a series of six such works in Augsburg under the title “ Variae Capryc” among them the present composition, with the large forked tree of the kind Schönfeld was fond of using in the years around 1654. Schönfeld’s original has not survived.
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