(b Haarlem, 1589–90; d ?The Hague, 1633–8). Dutch painter, etcher, draughtsman and dealer. As early as 1678 Samuel van Hoogstraten, in Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst (‘Introduction to the academy of painting’), discussed Segers’s career, presenting him as the prototype of a misunderstood genius. His fanciful account was based entirely on his knowledge of Segers’s unusual etchings, for he had at best only a vague knowledge of his paintings. Since then, the lack of biographical data on the artist, his striking subject-matter and his inimitable manipulation of etching techniques have led to exaggeration and mystification. The legend of ‘Segers’s secret’ has fascinated etchers, especially since the 19th century. Yet he made no great technical innovations; instead he combined all the known tricks of his time in a revolutionary way. He invented only one new technique, that of LIFT-GROUND ETCHING (also called sugar-bite aquatint), which was rediscovered in the 18th century by Alexander Cozens and Gainsborough. Segers’s painted and etched compositions are haunting and melancholic in mood, but neither his subjects nor his concept of nature were new; they had their origins in the work of his predecessors, from Albrecht Altdorfer to Adam Elsheimer and from Pieter Bruegel I to Hendrick Goltzius. His treatment of old themes was original, however, as was the novel combination of flat Dutch panoramas with fantastic mountain landscapes.

• Segers, Hercules (Pietersz.)
  • attributions
    • Ruisscher, Johannes
  • copies
    • Bramer, Leonard
  • methods
    • Drypoint, §2: History
    • Etching, §I: Materials and techniques
    • Etching, lift-ground
  • patrons and collectors
    • Cappelle, Jan van de, §1: Art collection
    • Hinloopen, Michiel
    • Rembrandt van Rijn, §I, 3(i)(c): Amsterdam, late 1631–c 1640: Landscape paintings
  • teachers
    • Netherlands, the, §III, 4(ii): Painting and graphic arts, c 1550–c 1680: Haarlem
  • works
    • Etching, §II, 2(i): 17th century: France and Italy
    • Etching, §II, 2(ii): 17th century: The Netherlands
    • Prints, §II, 1(viii): Subject-matter, before c 1700: Landscape
    • Prints, §III, 2: Intaglio processes
    • Prints, §III, 6(i): Hand-tinted colour