White Grape Vine, Kerner Hand Colored Engraving, Le Raisin, circa 1811
€ 1 120
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1811
Mapmaker / artist
Johann Simon von Kerner
Publisher
Johann Simon von Kerner, Stuttgart
Technique
Stipple engraving
Coloring
Original hand color
Sheet size
59.5 × 45 cm (23.4 × 17.7 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14458-7
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom and top edges. Scattered foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right and top left corners. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the bottom, left and right.
About this sheet
This antique stipple engraving, finished by hand in watercolor and body color, of a white grape vine comes from Le Raisin, ses especes et varietes, dessinees et colorees d'apres nature (The Grape: Its Species and Varieties, Drawn and Colored from Nature), the vine work of the German botanist and artist Johann Simon von Kerner (1755 to 1830), made at Stuttgart between about 1803 and 1815. The sheet shows a loose cluster of translucent pale green white grapes with a soft bloom on the ripening skins, hanging from a short shoot between sharply serrated leaves whose lobes and veins are drawn with care. To the left a separate woody cane shows the placement of its nodes and the texture of the wood, and at the base two single berries are painted apart, one whole and one cut in section to show the seed.
Le Raisin was conceived as a complete painted record of the vine varieties grown in Germany and beyond, and the sheets are both scientific documents and works of art. Kerner gives every variety the same elements, the cluster, the foliage, the cane and the dissected berry, because leaf shape, lobing, vein pattern and berry form were how growers identified a vine before modern ampelography existed. The sheets date from about 1811, and the work is believed to have been completed in only two copies.
The medium is a stipple engraving on wove paper watermarked C and I Honig, finished by hand in watercolor and heightened in places with body color: the pale skins of the grapes and the light falling across them are built up in wash, which is what gives the fruit its luminous, almost pearly look. With clean margins and a wide cream ground, the sheet makes a fine statement piece for a wine cellar, a dining room, a kitchen or a library, and it hangs well beside the darker grapes of the same series.
Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom and top edges. Scattered foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right and top left corners. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the bottom, left and right.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
