LECLERC, Sébastien I Elie enlevé dans un char de feu. Chute de la rivière de Niagara, c. 1700. Etching, laid paper, 18,2 x 27,2 cm. Margins faintly brown. Good copy.
Estimation :
100 / 150
Adjudication :
Invendu
Description
2nd known separate print and 3rd known image of the Niagara Falls, with Elijah rising towards heaven in a chariot of fire in the upper left corner. The falls are greatly heightened and on a large bluff in the foreground gesticulating onlookers appear very small. "As in most of Leclerc's compositions, and indeed in many 17th-c. prints of natural phenomena, Niagara is more the occasion for religious allegory than a focus in and of itself" (Mc Kinsey, p. 17). Sebastien Leclerc (Metz 1637- Paris 1714), famous drawer and engraver, made here an artistic creation whereas the 1st print of the Niagara Falls by Hennepin in 1697 was a book illustration.
