Lucas van Leyden

One of the first important printmakers from the Netherlands was Lucas van Leyden, who also was a painter. He was influenced by Albrecht Dürer, among others, and probably met Dürer when the artist visited Antwerp in 1521. Van Leyden’s works are chiefly characterised by the everyday genre scenes that were important in the Dutch artists’ repertoire of motifs. His unique style is marked by the realistic precision with which he depicts human beings, beyond embellishing idealism. Van Leyden was very careful of the quality of his printing plates and restricted the number of proofs that could be made from them. Despite this fact, van Leyden’s family made large numbers of new prints from the plates after his death.