# Enclosed Valley

**Hercules Seghers** (Dutch, 1589/90–c. 1638)  
c. 1623–30  
etching on cloth, hand colored with watercolor  
Platemark: 10.7 x 19 cm (4 3/16 x 7 1/2 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951.349. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/1951.349).

## About this work

To make his dreamy and mysterious landscapes, Hercules Seghers combined a number of etching and coloring techniques in order to make prints that met his expressive ends, and which he considered printed paintings. He created 54 etchings, but instead of producing standardized editions printed in black ink on white paper, he made each impression a unique and individualized work of art. He often printed in colored inks on paper prepared with a colored ground, or on cloth (as here), and then painted the printed impression by hand. Cleveland’s etching is one of only ten known impressions of the first state of this print.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

Hercules Seghers painted this in about 1623–30, aged about 34. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

### How it was made

- **Etching.** The artist draws with a needle through a waxy coating on a copper plate, and acid bites the exposed lines. The plate is then inked, wiped and printed under pressure, so the line keeps the freedom of drawing.
- **Watercolour.** Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.

### [Hercules Seghers](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/hercules-seghers)

Dutch, 1589/90–c. 1638

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Culture: Netherlands
- The artist was about 34
- Real size: about 4 × 7½ in (11 × 19 cm). The original is small: even the 8 × 10 in print shows it larger than life.
- Century: 17th century
- Movement: [Dutch Golden Age](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/dutch-golden-age)
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/591.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/591/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/enclosed-valley-cma-128385).