The Evening

Johann Heinrich Lips

1758 Kloten near Zurich – 1817 Zurich

Black and brown ink, black and grey wash and partly heightened in white. Sheet size: 21.5 x 27.2 cm. Signed.

Preparatory drawing in reverse to the first version of the aquatint of the same title. (For the etching see Joachim Kruse, Johann Heinrich Lips, exh. cat., Veste Coburg 1989, p. 231 ff., cat. no. 148).

During his second stay in Rome (1786-89), Lips met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who invited him to join the art school in Weimar as professor.

In a letter of 5th of August 1793 from Weimar Lips mentions the present drawing as well as the first version of the aquatint The Evening: "... It is basically a pleasant idea that arose unexpectedly in a happy, joyful moment and which by its lighting soothes the eye. The reworking is an essay in aquatint and I may say that it is not entirely unsuccessful… By and by three other pieces will follow, and together with this one they will represent the four times of the day. The idea of the four times of the day was inspired by the ‘speculation’, after the first one had been drawn. ...” What Lips described as ‘speculation’ was Goethe’s suggestion to turn the drawing into a series. The April number in 1793 of the Journal des Luxus und der Moden, p. 263 f, already advertised the first aquatint: “... Herr Lips initiates his series of Arcadian shepherd scenes of the times of the day with this very lovely piece…. It is so beautifully conceived, drawn and so much in keeping that one might call it a drawn idyll. ... “ The aquatint was so popular that Lips etched a second version around 1799. It is not entirely clear whether he made an entirely new plate or re-worked the old one; it seems that the quality of the first plate was not sufficient to allow for a higher print run. There are small differences between the first and the second version. In the latter, the villa in the middleground was omitted, and the vegetation had been altered. In the first version, the couple gazes meditatively into the distance and not, as in the second version, at each other. The later sheet also lacks the".. . charm and the bewitching tenderness of feeling..." (Joachim Kruse) of our version.

The series of etchings of the times of the day was only completed in 1805, that is twelve years after the execution of our drawing. The series was Lips’s most important graphic work and is today considered one of the masterpieces of German Romantic printmaking. The present drawing should certainly be regarded as a first and fundamental idea to this series and is therefore of considerable importance in the art of draughtsmanship of Goethe’s period.

Bought by a private collection, UK.