HOLLAR'S JOURNEY ON THE RHINE
IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN 20 GALLERIES BY SUBJECT
THE EXECUTION OF THE EARL OF STRAFFORD THE WORLD IS RULED GOVERNED BY OPINION PROSPECT OF LONDON AND WESTMINSTER FROM LAMBETH (DETAILS)THE THEATRES AT BANKSIDE, DETAIL KENILWORTH CASTLE FROM DUGDALE |
Hollar was a natural line draftsman tackling a huge range of subjects. His panoramic sketches of towns attracted me for their logic of cubic arrangements and sureness of perspectival relations. I always assumed he used an optical device, for speed of execution (given the prolific nature of his topographic profession, and for binding in the composition. Above all I sense in his work a density of reference, a feeling that everything mattered, and that it was about to change at any minute.
John Aubrey was much taken by him. "He told that when was a schoolboy he tooke a delight in drawing maps; which drafts he kept, and they were pretty. He was designed by his father to be a lawyer, and was put to that profession, when his father troubles, together with the Warres forced him to leave his country [Bohemia]..... He was very short sighted, and did work so curiously that the curiosity of his work is not to be judged without a magnifying-glass. When he took his landscapes, he, then, had a glass to helpe his sight.... He was a very friendly, good-natured man as could be, but Shiftless to the World, and dyed not rich. "
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