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Original engraving printed in black ink on laid paper.
Signed in the plate with the artist’s monogram on the stone lower right.
A strong, dark 16th century Meder “b” (of c) impression, showing strong contrasts throughout, printed after the appearance of the black spot on one of the eggs in the basket and on the tip of the man’s jerkin.
Catalog: Bartsch 89; Dodgson 90; Panofsky 196; Meder 89 b; Strauss 90; Schoch/Mende/Scherbaumm 88
4 9/16 x 2 7/8 inches
In excellent condition, trimmed down to or just outside the platemark on all four sides.
Provenance: ex-collection Falkeisen & Huber, Basel art dealers Theodore Falkeisen (1768-1814) and Friedrich Huber (1766-1832), bearing their collection stamp [Lugt 1008] in black ink verso; Offentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel (Cabinet of Prints, Museum of Fine Arts, Basel), bearing its collection stamps [L. 222a] in black ink upper left corner recto and [L. 222b] in black ink verso.
Collections in which impressions of this state of this engraving can be found: Rijksmuseum (Rijkspretenkabinet), Amsterdam; Öffentliche Kunstsammlungen (Kupferstichkabinett), Basel; Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturlesitz (Kupferstichkabinett), Berlin; Museum of Fine Arts (Department of Prints and Drawings), Boston; Herzog-Anton-Ulrich Museum, Kupferstichkabinett, Braunschweig; Kunsthalle Bremen (Kupferstichkabinett), Bremen; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen (Kupferstich-Kabinett), Dresden; British Museum (Department of Prints and Drawings) , London; Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich; Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Graphische Sammlung), Nuremberg; Bibliothéque Nationale (Cabinet des Estampes), Paris; Musées de la Ville de Paris, Musée de Petit Palais (Collection Duthuit), Paris; Bibliothek Otto Schäfer (Sammlung-Otto-Schäfer), Schweinfurt.
In 1876 the scholar Moriz Thausing noted the “delightful hinterland simplicity and earthy humor which were yet to play a great role in German Netherlandish art.” In 1928 the scholar Eduard Flechsig proposed that the woman is no relation of the peasant’s but is only curious about what he has to sell, although she has already made several purchases.
