The blacksmith. From the series of Crafts and trades

Jan Georg (Joris) van Vliet (1605-68) was born in Leiden and entered Rembrandt's studio in about 1630-31. No paintings are known to him, but the volume in the Pelican History of Art devoted to Dutch Art and Architecture 1600-1800 by Jakob Rosenberg, Seymour Slive and E.H. ter Kuile, says he is "important as an etcher" (p. 148). At least some of his etchings were apperantly "executed under Rembrandt's close supervision", possibly, according to C.H. Hind, using Rembrandt's own drawings as models, just as Marcantonio Ramimondi did with Raphael and members of Rubens' studio did under the master's direction. In addition to etchings after Rembrandt's drawings and paintings, Van Vliet also executed a few etchings after Jan Lievens and Joris van Schooten.

This etching comes from a series of 18 genre prints depicting the crafts and trades (e.g. basket-weavers, glaziers) and is characterised by powerful chiaroscuro and a sense of the manual strength of the blacksmith and his assistants. Three central figures are swinging their hammers and a fourth figure fans the fire; workshop tools are suspended from the back wall.

See: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/v/vliet_j/biograph.html

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art      July 2017