| Charles Amand-Durand, born in Paris France, 1831, became a master engraver early in his career. He deeply admired the 15th, 16th, and 17th century Old Masters engravings and saw how they lost quality and faded from the ravages of time. This realization, combined with in-depth research throughout public and private collections of these masters, inspired Durands dedication to recreate their images and preserve the original quality for future generations.
In 1895 Theo Van Gogh, brother and manager of the infamous Vincent Van Gogh stumbled across the works of this artist in one of his travels. He was so impressed that he sought the artist out and spent an evening with him in his home. Afterward he quickly took to pen and paper to write Vincent to express his enthusiasm for his artistic talents and intellect. The Van Gogh brothers were just two of the many that recognized Amand Durand's talents. However, it would take years to unravel a story book mystery that makes his works and talents even more famed today.
Amand Durand was a great admirer of Rembrandt. He desired to study the plates and techniques of this genius. Unfortunately at the time there only remained about 100 known plates, which were available to produce fine quality impressions. For 100 years the bulk of Rembrandt's plates were shrouded in mystery. As time moved on some of Rembrandts plates began to surface. By this time Rembrandts plates were miserably worn and dull. Amand Durand, who by now had made the ranks of a noted engraver, decided to remedy this with his own gifted talents. He researched and intensely studied pieces that were available only in collections. From here on he spent the major part of his life exactly duplicating Rembrandts images onto copper plates. These recreations were called Amand Durands after Rembrandt. Their unbelievable clarity and exactness were achieved because Amand Durand used as his guide, not the worn and dull plates, but the first and second state etchings of the masters original works. By this time Durands talent were known to experts of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1855, Conservator of the Cabinet de Estampes, George Duplessis so appreciated the genius of this man that he had his work published in books which belong to the Bibliotheque Nationale in France. Amand-Durand was used as master etcher in an anthology of European engravings, which became so valuable that they were kept under locked scrutiny in most libraries. What we have is a noted master duplicating a master some 200 years later. |
