Magdalena de Passe

MAGDALENA DE PASSE
Cologne 1600 – Utrecht 1638
After Paul Bril (1554-1626)

Landscape with Travellers and a Donkey
About 1620
Engraving, only state
25.6 x 34.3 cm (sheet)
22 x 26.5 cm (platemark)

Purchase, Robert Allard and Charles Cole Fund

A child prodigy born to an artistic family, Magdalena de Passe went on to develop an international reputation for her inventive adaptations of well-known compositions done in a distinctively refined and fluid style.

The MMFA recently acquired three rare prints from this “Engraver Extraordinaire”: full-sheet early impressions, prominently inscribed “Magdaleena de pas fecit” [Magdalena made this]. They are the first prints by a woman artist to enter the pre-19th century European collection.

Landscape with Travellers and a Donkey presents a rendition of Paul Bril’s drawing A Castle in a Mountainous Landscape. Playing with contrast, she adds depth and interest to the scene, especially with regards to plant life. Transformed by Magdalena’s burin, Bril’s spindly trees waving in the breeze become a lyrical cascade of inky branches. Exercising creative license, she also makes subtle yet strategic adjustments to the imagery. While Bril depicted the riding party from behind as they are exiting the scene, Magdalena turns them to appear in profile. The effect is an elegant silhouette that reveals the rider’s face and the horse’s raised hoof, which recalls equestrian sculpture and sets the scene in motion.