Gérard DE LAIRESSE

(1640 Liège – 1711 Amsterdam)

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Theseus fights the Amazons attacking Athens – c.1670

Etching on laid paper. Published by Nicolaus Vischer. Lettered: “Per Gerardum de Lairesse inv. et sculp. et per Nicolaum Visscher edit. cum Priv: Ord. General: Belgii Foederati”. Watermark: Strasbourg Lily (Churchill 400).

Size of sheet: 8,5 x 15 cm.

Timmers 1942/Gerard Lairesse (51); Hollstein Dutch 51.

Comparative impression: British Museum – inv.ref. 1869,0410.1267; Rijksmuseum – inv.ref. RP-P-OB-46.699.

Crisp lifetime impression with small margins.

Gérard de LAIRESSE: Theseus fights the Amazons

Gérard de Lairesse was a painter and art theorist, who won recognition and fame in his lifetime. He was called the ‘Dutch Apelles’ or ‘Dutch Poussin’ by his admirers. Lairesse was also a prolific and gifted printmaker. He became blind in 1690 and began to give art lectures which were published by his sons.

The Amazons were a mythical race of warrior women in Asia Minor, who figure in many Classical stories; the scene depicted here is their rout by the Greeks under Theseus.

Gérard de LAIRESSE: Theseus fights the Amazons

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