In 1953 F.W.H. Hollstein published in volume IX of this series a catalogue of the engravings of Hendrick Hondius I (1573- ca. 1649) followed by another which listed the prints of Hendrick Hondius II (1597- af ter 1644). Unfortunately, his attributions were partly based on inaccurate biographical data and partly on a continuation of a notion put forth by previous authors such as Wurzbach and Nagler of Hendrick Hondius I as a stiff, old-fashioned engraver, who continued to produce sixteenth-century Flemish imagery weIl into the seventeenth century, and Hendrick Hondius II, as a more skilled and more "Dutch" seventeenth-century printmaker. To Hendrick Hondius were consistently attributed the prints af ter Bruegel and the Flemish style landscapes af ter Mostaert and Joos van Lier, while to Henrdrick Hondius II went the lush depictions of the months af ter Jan Wildens and the court portraits af ter Van Dyck and Mierevelt. At least twice, the same print was given to both artists. Wolfgang Stechow in his short biography in Thieme/ Becker ("Hendrick Hondius I (d. Ä)" in Thieme/ Becker XVII, Leipzig 1924, pp. 435-36) was the first to challenge these assumptions whe,n he suggested that all the graphic work could be attributed to Hendrick Hondius I, the engraver active in The Hague. Although slightly overreaching, Stechow's proposal now appears the most accurate.
The present catalogue attempts to finally sort out the work of Hendrick Hondius – also known as Hondius the elder - from that of the two other artists of the same name active in the printing field at the same time. Henricus Hondius (1597-1651), a member of the Hondius mapmaking dynasty based in Amsterdam, etched primarily maps and engraved only a few prints with other subjects. Hendrick Hondius II (c. 1615-1676), the youngest son of Hendrick Hondius, lived in Brazil between 1635 and 1650; he engraved few if any prints but published pamphlets and a courant upon his return to The Hague. The remaining plates show Hendrick Hondius as an accomplished engraver and etcher, who worked in a clearly evolving progression of styles throughout a career of at least fifty-four years.
Published in 1994 Compiler: Nadine Orenstein Editor: Ger Luijten ISBN: 978-90-72658-38-8 242 pp.
