The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 10, 2026

A horizontally oriented print in black ink with meticulous, jagged lines depicts two knotted trees framing a river landscape. Water flows between craggy, hatched cliffs. On the left, buildings with conical roofs dot the hills. A church with twin spires perches on a high precipice to the right. Closely spaced, overlapping strokes define rocky textures and shadows, while a wooden bridge spans a distant valley in the center background.

River Landscape with Rocks at Left and Right

1546

Augustin Hirschvogel

(German, 1503–1553)
Germany
etching
Image: 14.6 x 17.4 cm (5 3/4 x 6 7/8 in.); Sheet: 14.6 x 17.4 cm (5 3/4 x 6 7/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1963.471
Catalogue raisonné: Hollstein XIIIA .169.36
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Hirschvogel's etched landscape hints at the presence of human activity, yet no humans can be seen.

Description

Within a decade, Augustin Hirschvogel and Hanns Lautensack were aware of the landscapes by Wolfgang Huber and Albrecht Altdorfer and began to expand their artistic vocabulary. Hirschvogel probably made this group of etchings after traveling down the Danube from Nuremberg, through Regensburg and Passau, to his residence in Vienna. The many buildings, cultivated fields, and roads emphasize human activity and its mark on the landscape but always in the service of articulating a particular topography. Hirschvogel’s etchings found an international audience, informing the development of the landscape genre as far away as Italy and the Netherlands.
  • Love Gardens / Forbidden Fruit. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 2-October 29, 2023).
    Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964).
  • {{cite web|title=River Landscape with Rocks at Left and Right|url=false|author=Augustin Hirschvogel|year=1546|access-date=10 August 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.471