Fine series of the twelve months of the year, etchings made between 1805 and 1807 by Izaak de Wit Jansz., after drawings by Jacob Cats. Size (each scene): 12.5 × 17.7 cm. Jacob Cats (1741–1799) was born as the only son of the Amsterdam Mennonite bookseller Johannes Cats (1699–1772) and his second wife, Elisabeth van Rhee. Johannes Cats had been forced to leave the country because he published a collection of controversial spiritual songs. Their son Jacob was born while the Cats family was temporarily living in Germany, in Altona near Hamburg, where there was a large Mennonite community. After his wife died, Johannes returned to Amsterdam; Jacob was then about two years old. In 1765 Jacob married Anna Hemme. After working in the cloth trade and in a bookbinding workshop, he was employed by the engraver Abraham Starre. He subsequently received drawing lessons from Pieter Louw and Gerard van Rossum, and later worked for three years at the wallpaper manufactory of Jan Hendrik Troost van Groenendoelen. With the support of his wealthy friends Johannes de Bosch and Willem Writs, he established his own wallpaper factory, where Egbert van Drielst was also employed. In addition to making copies of several famous paintings—such as Rembrandt’s The Night Watch and Bartholomeus van der Helst’s Civic Guard Banquet—he primarily painted landscapes populated with figures and animals. He became popular for his ability to render figures with great realism and to create a strong sense of depth in his drawings. When demand for painted wallpapers declined in the 1780s, Jacob Cats devoted himself entirely to drawing. His drawings were frequently translated into prints by other artists. Cats specialized in pendants (for example, the same landscape depicted in summer and winter), as well as in representations of the seasons and the months. He produced the drawings for this series of twelve months in 1791–1792. Izaak de Wit Jansz. (1744–1809) was an etcher and engraver, a pupil of Jacques-Philippe Le Bas, and worked, among others, for Reinier Vinkeles. For a time he taught at the Fundatie van Renswoude in Utrecht. The series of drawings by Jacob Cats was in the collection of Jacob Helmolt when Izaak de Wit Jansz. made his etchings. Price: 3.500,- (complete series of 12 etchings, incl. 12 frames)
