He was born in Prague, the capital of Bohemia, in 1607. His father was a legal official and intended that his son should also take up a career in law. However, the young boy seems to have shown a talent for drawing at an early age, and although never encouraged by his father, made the creative arts his vocation. His earliest etchings date from around 1625, and he made numerous copies of the great masters such as Dürer and Jan II van de Velde. In his early works he appears to be almost entirely self-taught.
Hollar's early original works are landscapes, such as Five Small Views in the Neighbourhood of Prague (1626) and Ten Littlle Views (1626-30). Although somewhat less skilled than his later work, they show the delicate line and straightforward rendering of Nature typical of the artist.
In 1627 Hollar left Prague. Why he did so is not clear. The usual reason given has to do with the Thirty Years' War, which began as a civil war in Bohemia in 1618 and rapidly developed into a religious-political conflict which engulfed most of Europe. By the late 1620s the Catholic faction was gaining the upper hand and Hollar, being Protestant, thought it wise to leave. Thus began a life of exile and wandering; apart from a brief visit in 1636, Hollar was never to see his native city again.
He went first to Frankfurt-am-Main, where he worked in the shop of Matthaeus Merian the Elder, a well-known engraver and publisher. Here his technique improved, though he retained his characteristic lightness and delicacy of touch. After several months he moved on to Stuttgurt and then to Strasbourg. In 1629 he arrived in Cologne, and settled there for seven years. During this period he visited other German cities such as Mainz, Münster and Düsseldorf, and in 1634 undertook a visit to Holland. These years of travel were also ones of ceaseless work; the drawings and watercolours done at this time provided Hollar in later years with a mine of resources for etchings. It was a habit with Hollar that he frequently made prints from drawings done years before. He also copied works by Rembrandt - Saskia with Pearls in her Hair of 1634 (B.347) and Naked Woman on a Mound of c. 1631 (B.198). In 1635-36 he completed two series of views - Amoenissimae aliquot locorum effigies (Very charming Representations of some Places) and a Reisbüchlein (Little Sketchbook).
The great art collector Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, passed through Cologne in 1636 on his way to see the Emperior Ferdinand II in Vienna. Hollar was taken into his entourage. This event effectively removed from continental Europe one of the most talented graphic artists of the age, and placed him in an alien but not uncongenial culture which he proceeded to record with vigour and sympathy. Hollar travelled with the Earl to Vienna and on to Prague before going back to settle almost permanently in England. While in Vienna he succeeded in obtaining from the Emperor letters patent recognizing his knightly descent. This honour was to stand him in good stead, for artists were not highly regarded in England at this time. As part of Arundel's household, Hollar had access to one of the great art collections of Europe, and the next few years were for him a time of furious activity, sketching and copying the Earl's treasures. In 1641 he married Mistress Tracy, one of the Countess' maids-in-waiting.
This happy and industrious time which Hollar was later to reflect on as a Golden Age of his life, lasted until 1642. In that year, the Earl, an ardent Royalist, fled to the Continent. Hollar entered the service of the Duke of York and remained there till 1644, when he is said to have been captured at the Siege of Basing House. However, he escaped and made his way to Antwerp, where he remained till 1652. Though interrupted by the Civil War, Hollar's output during his first stay in England was particularly impressive: he made many portraits, including those of Queen Henrietta Maria (1641), Princess Mary & William of Orange (1641), Prince Rupert (1643), the Parliamentarians Pym, Monck and Essex, the architect Inigo Jones, and John Milton (1637); several series of costumes, the Ornatus muliebris Anglicanus (1640) and Theatrum Mulierum or Aula Veneris (1643, 1644, re-issued 1649) and among his most beautiful work, three sets of Seasons, (1641, 1643, 1644).
In Antwerp he found stiff competition from established print-sellers and publishers, but he made a living issuing views of the city and Catholic subjects such as Virgins, saints and martyrs. He also engraved many of his drawings from the sketchbooks he had managed to bring with him out of England, including pieces from the Arundel collection, views of London, and Six Views of Albury in Surrey (1645), the Earl's home.
With the defeat of Charles II at the Battle of Worcester (September 1651), many exiles, realizing the futility of Royalist hopes, returned to England. Hollar was among them. The Earl of Arundel had died in 1646, and now Hollar had to find new patrons and new work. He found them among his antiquarian and literary friends, and for publishers of topographical and antiquarian books he produced a vast amount of work during the Commonwealth and the Restoration. Most notable of these were illustrations to the works of Sir William Dugdale - The Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656), History of St. Paul's (1658), St. George's Chapel, Windsor (c. 1663) and the monumental Monasticon Anglicanum (1658-73). He also engraved great quantities of maps. These were not always true maps in the modern sense, but rather birds'-eye views, after the custom of the time. Hollar's attention to detail and meticulous precision set new standards in English mapmaking. Yet despite his prodigious output, which should have yielded a handsome financial return, Hollar died in poverty. His friend Francis Place noted his working habits: "He did all by the hour, in which he was very exact, for if anybody came in, and kept him from his business, he always laid the hourglass on one side, till they were gone. He always received 12d per hour".
Hollar's style is neat, accurate and precise. He does not interpret his subjects as do most creative artists, but rather records as faithfully as possible what he sees before him. In this he is a delineator of places, customs and events, and is an invaluable source for the social historian. At the same time he produces superb prints by a masterly command of technique. His artistry in controlling tone may best be seen in his prints of Muffs, Shells, and Cups, which range from subtlest grey to brilliant black. His love of detail can be seen in his numerous prints of ships, in which he had a lifelong interest. His special talent as a master of costume figures can be discovered in the series he produced from 1636 onwards. Lightness and delicacy of touch were the essence of his work.
Wenceslaus Hollar is the epitome of the artist in many ways: his industrious, almost single-minded devotion to his work, which led him to create over 2700 plates; his chronic poverty, which was with him even in his early days at Cologne; his rootlessness, which took him from Bohemia to England and back again (even to Tangiers in 1669). His work did not suffer from lack of admirers, and his plates continued to be printed into the 18th century.
Hollar died in Westminister in 1677 and was buried in St. Margaret's church, next to the Abbey. He had a talented son, who died in the Great Plague (1665), and a daugher who was renowned for her beauty.
References:
Borovský, F.A., 'Wenzel Hollar', in Thieme, U. & Becker, F. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler, vol. 17 (1924), pp. 376-79.
Eerde, K.S. van, Wenceslaus Hollar - Delineator of his Time, Chalottesville, Va., 1970.
Hind, A.M., Wenceslaus Hollar and his Views of London & Windsor. London, 1922.
Hind, A.M., 'Wenceslaus Hollar', Print Collector's Quarterly, 17 (1930). 7 - 22, 116-137.
Nicoll, W.R., 'Wenceslaus Hollar', Dictionary of National Biography, 9, (1917). 1054-56.
Parthey, G., Wenzel Hollar. Beschreibendes Verzeichniss seiner Kupferstiche. Berlin, 1853; repr. Amsterdam, 1963.
