Information
The collection of foreign prints and drawings of the National Library of Latvia is the second largest –and second most significant – such collection in Latvia, with over 12,000 works. Artworks by Netherlandish artists (including the Flemish and Dutch schools of the seventeenth century) are especially prominent, comprising some 1,100 items from the early sixteenth to late nineteenth century. Netherlandish Mannerism is well represented, as are artists who made engravings exclusively after Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) paintings. The earliest works in the Netherlandish collection are two miniatures by Lucas van Leyden (1494–1533): Soldiers Giving Drink to Christ (c. 1512) and St. Philip (c. 1510). The collection of seventeenth-century Dutch prints reflects the national school’s special interest in chamber-style works and provides an introduction to the eclectic experiments of the era in the fields of etchings and early mezzotints. The landscape genre is represented by characteristic works by artists including Anthonie Waterloo (1609–1690), Allart van Everdingen (1621–1675), Jan Both (1615/1618–1652), Aelbert Meyering (1645–1714), and Herman van Swanevelt (c. 1603–1655). There are animal etchings by Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1620–1683) and Karel Dujardin (1626–1678). The famous genre artist Adriaen van Ostade (1610–1685) is represented with the etching The Painter in His Studio (c. 1647). The collection contains eight etchings by Gerard de Lairesse (1641–1711), with their echoes of the French aristocratic court style in Dutch art. The collection also contains a modest number of drawings by Dutch and Flemish artists from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries.
Dmitrijs Zinovjevs, Curator of Prints and Drawings Collection (February 2024)
Collection catalogues
Kolekcija. Iespiedgrafika Latvijas Nacionālās bibliotēkas Mākslas krājumā [The National Library of Latvia Art Repository Plate Collection]
Dmitrijs Zinovjevs and Katrīna Teivāne (ed.)
Riga (National Library of Latvia) 2022