Hercules Segers took an original approach to the medium of etching that departed significantly from his predecessors and contemporaries, creating prints that could double as small paintings, each one slightly different in appearance.

Many of the techniques Segers employed demonstrate an unbridled experimentation with the medium. One labor-intensive method he invented was an innovative three-tone etching process, which involved etching highlights and a crosshatched middle tone, and then etching the printing plate a second time in order to create dark lines and shadows. Segers also made printing plates specifically for printing light inks on a dark ground. In one instance, he fashioned two separate printing plates for a single image, with one intended only to indicate the highlights.

The features here, composed by Robert G. Erdmann, senior scientist at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, allow you to compare differing impressions of Segers's works. Drag your mouse across each of the features to view the different impressions, or click on the link below each feature to view the prints in greater detail and fully interact with them using various keyboard, touchscreen, and mouse commands. (Please note: These features are best viewed in Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.)

Segers and Rembrandt: A Two-Pane Comparison

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Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). Tobias and the Angel, ca. 1630–33. Line etching printed in olive green with tone and highlights; first state of six. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; transferred from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, collection Pieter Cornelis Baron van Leyden (1717–1788), 1816 (inv. no. RP-P-OB-796). Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669). The Flight into Egypt, altered from Tobias and the Angel by Hercules Segers, ca. 1652. Line etching, drypoint, burin and plate tone, printed on vellum; third state of six. Musée du Louvre, collection Edmond de Rothschild, Paris (inv. nr. 2371 L.R.)

The printing plate Segers created for the etching Tobias and the Angel was later acquired by Rembrandt, a great admirer of the artist and himself an accomplished etcher. In a display of esteem but also of artistic competition with his predecessor, Rembrandt reworked Segers's printing plate, burnishing out some of Segers's original composition, including the figures of Tobias and the Angel. Rembrandt then proceeded to change the composition by sketching directly into the printing plate with a sharp drypoint needle. He changed the subject of the print to The Flight into Egypt but kept much of the landscape. This feature allows you to slide between impressions of both of these prints and see the changes that Rembrandt made to the plate.

The Lamentation of Christ: Side-by-Side Curtain Viewer

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Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). The Lamentation of Christ, after Hans Baldung, ca. 1630–33. Line etching printed with tone and highlights on a cream-tinted ground. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; transferred from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, collection Pieter Cornelis Baron van Leyden (1717–1788), 1816 (inv. no. RP-P-OB-797). Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). The Lamentation of Christ, after Hans Baldung, ca. 1630–33. Line etching printed with tone and blue highlights on a cream-tinted ground, colored with brush. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; transferred from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, collection Pieter Cornelis Baron van Leyden (1717–1788), 1816 (inv. no. RP-P-OB-798)

Seger's impression of The Lamentation of Christ is one of his most colorful painted prints. This feature allows you to slide between a black-and-white impression and a colored impression of this work, with the former showing just how densely etched the image was before painting.

The Enclosed Valley: Fading View

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Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). The Enclosed Valley, ca. 1625–30. Line etching and drypoint printed in dark green, on a green ground; fourth state of four. Kupferstich-Kabinett Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (inv. no. A 49374). Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). The Enclosed Valley, ca. 1625–30. Line etching and drypoint printed in dark green, on green paint; second state of four. British Museum, London (inv. no. S 5523). Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). The Enclosed Valley, ca. 1625–30. Line etching printed on linen with a gray ground, colored with brush; first state of four. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Mr and Mrs De Bruijn-van der Leeuw Bequest, Muri, Switzerland, 1961 (inv. no. RP-P-1961-869). Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). The Enclosed Valley, ca. 1625–30. Line etching and drypoint printed in blue on linen with a yellow ground; second state of four. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; on loan from the City of Amsterdam, collection Michiel Hinloopen (1619–1708), 1885 (inv. no. RP-P-H-OB-812). Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). The Enclosed Valley, ca. 1625–30. Line etching and drypoint printed in brown, on a light brown ground, fabric blind print; second state of four. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; on loan from the City of Amsterdam, collection Michiel Hinloopen (1619–1708), 1885 (inv.nr. RP-P-H-OB-813). Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). The Enclosed Valley, ca. 1625–30. Line etching and drypoint printed in blue, on a cream-tinted ground, colored with brush; second state of four. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; purchased, 1874 (inv. no. RP-P-OB-814). Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). The Enclosed Valley, ca. 1625–30. Line etching and drypoint in blue, on terracotta colored ground; second state of four. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale (inv. Reserve cb-49-boite ecu (estnum758)

Segers achieved vastly different effects by printing on various colored papers in colored inks and then later painting onto the impressions. Twenty-two impressions of The Enclosed Valley have been preserved, ten of which were printed on cloth. An impression in green ink on green-colored paper evokes a night scene, while another one printed in blue on a cream-tinted paper suggests daylight. This feature allows you to slide over the image in order to fade in and out among eight variously colored impressions of the print.

Landscape with a Plateau, a River in the Distance: Side-by-Side Curtain Viewer

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Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). Landscape with a Plateau, a River in the Distance, ca. 1622–25. Line etching printed in black and pale yellow from two plates, on dark blue prepared paper; unique impression of the second state of three. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; on loan from the City of Amsterdam, collection Michiel Hinloopen (1619–1708), 1885 (inv. no. RP-P-H-OB-800). Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). Landscape with a Plateau, a River in the Distance, ca. 1622–25. Line etching printed in green; unique impression of the third state of three. Kupferstich-Kabinett Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (inv. no. A 49369)

The impression in blue of Landscape with a Plateau, a River in the Distance is exceptional. Segers made this impression from two printing plates: first, he printed the image in black ink on blue-painted paper; then a separate plate was used to print the tiny yellow highlights. This may be the earliest example in etching of what is called printing in register. The impression in black ink on white paper shows an impression without the highlights. What a different effect! This feature allows you to slide between the two impressions.

River Valley with Four Trees/Valley with Trees and Mountains: Fading View

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Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). River Valley with Four Trees, ca. 1625–30. Line etching and drypoint printed in blue, on a gray-blue ground, colored with brush; second state of two. Bibliotheca Nacional de España, Madrid (inv. no. 41954). Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). Valley with Trees and Mountains (reversed image), ca. 1625–30. Oil on panel. Mauritshuis, The Hague; purchased with the support of the Rembrandt Association, the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund, the Royal Dutch Foundries and Steel Mills Ltd, IJmuiden, and the Friends of the Mauritshuis Foundation, 1969 (inv. no. 1033)

Printmaking allowed Segers to take an existing painted composition and re-envision it in many more possible color combinations and tonal effects. A comparison of the painting Valley with Trees and Mountains and the etching River Valley with Four Trees shows that they are the same composition. (The painting here has been reversed in order to match up with the print whose composition, through the printmaking process, comes out in mirror image.) This feature allows you to fade from a black-and-white impression of the etching to the painting and back again.

Mountain Landscape with a Crest and a Forked Tree: Curtain View

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Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). Mountain Landscape with a Crest and a Forked Tree: First Version, ca. 1622–25. Line etching and drypoint printed in green-blue, on a cream-tinted ground, colored with brush; second state of two. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; on loan from the City of Amsterdam, collection Michiel Hinloopen (1619–1708), 1885 (inv.no. RP-P-H-OB-815). Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). Mountain Landscape with a Crest and a Forked Tree: Second Version, ca. 1622–25. Line etching printed in light blue, on a gray-brown ground, colored with brush; unique impression. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; on loan from the City of Amsterdam, collection Michiel Hinloopen (1619–1708), 1885 (inv. no. RP-P-H-OB-816)

In several instances, Segers created two printing plates of the same image, one of them intended expressly for the purpose of producing impressions in light ink on a dark ground. Almost a negative of the original print, Segers made this by tracing the lines of a counterproof onto a copper plate. The printed lines of the first version are now established by the dark ground, and the light passages of the original are here rendered in lines printed in light blue ink. This feature allows you to slide over two impressions and compare them.

Landscape with a Waterfall: Curtain View

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Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). Landscape with a Waterfall, First Version, ca. 1625–27. Line etching and drypoint printed in blue, on gray-blue paint, varnished; second state of three. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; on loan from the City of Amsterdam, collection Michiel Hinloopen (1619–1708), 1885 (inv. no. RP-P-H-OB-825). Hercules Segers (Dutch, ca. 1590–ca. 1638). Landscape with a Waterfall, Second Version, ca. 1625–27. Line etching printed with tone and highlights, on a dark pink ground, varnished; first state of four. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; transferred from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, collection Pieter Cornelis Baron van Leyden (1717–1788), 1816 (inv. no. RP-P-OB-827)

Segers created two separate printing plates with nearly the same image in Landscape with a Waterfall—in pure line etching and in his three-tone mix of etching techniques in the second version. The dense etching patterns in the second version flood the scene with a slightly vibrating grayish hue. This feature allows you to slide between details of the two versions.

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