hercules segers

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Hercules Segers

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Art 1

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


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Art 2

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 Segerswork 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.


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Art 3

1. River Vall ey with Four Trees

This landscape is one of the largest of Herculesprinted 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. Vall ey 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 Vi ew with a Mossy Tree Br anch

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


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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 theRuins 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


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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 Val ley

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.


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9. The Enclosed Val ley

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.


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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.


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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.


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15. River Vall ey with a Waterfall

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 Cli ff s Border ing a River Vall ey

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.


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17. Mountain Val ley with Broken Pine Trees

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 Vall ey with Waterfal ls

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.


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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.

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.


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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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