Peter Van der Borcht II (1545-1608) -  Flemish School

Painter engraver who worked in Antwerp and Malines. Van der Borcht has a very delicate and early etching style. Etching was rather rare in the third quarter of the 16th century. Because of style and quality, the work of Van der Borcht is wanted and valuable.He is thought to have been the son of Jacques van der Borcht, The first published artwork attributed to the younger van der Borcht was printed in 1552. Pieter would have been only 12 years old at the time, but with a guild-member artist for a father it is certainly possible he was already working by then, at least as an apprentice. By 1564 van der Borcht was working for Christopher Plantin. In 1565 van der Borcht received a commission from Plantin to make 60 drawings of plants for a herbarium by Rembert Dodoens.Van der Borcht remained in Antwerp most of his life. He later began to engrave his own work using the new medium of copperplate engraving and etching that came into common use after 1564.

Let me quote Ursula Mielke and Ger Luiten in the foreword of the Hollstein catalogue:

"In spite of their influence some printmakers have been poorly treated by art history and Peeter van der Borcht is one of them. The scarcity of his etchings is probably one of the reasons of him being largely neglected. Many of his prints survive in one or two impressions only. And that is peculiar indeed, especially as a lot of them must have gone through considerable editions as they were made to circulate certain religious ideas. Van der Borcht was also active in the field of printmaking for a relatively long period.

We think that the catalogue of the work of this often overlooked artist – with the superb series of biblical illustrations to H.J. Barrefelt’s Imagines et Figurae Bibliorum with their majestic landscapes to come – will serve iconographers, theologians, general art historians and print lovers alike."