This week’s work of art is by the Dutch illustrator and engraver Jan Luyken. His watercolor painting, The Cooper, was originally done as a study for an engraving he was working on for a larger project, a book entitled “Het Menselyk Bedryf,” or “Book Of Trades.”

Both the watercolor and the subsequent engraving, which is below, was completed in 1694.

The final engraving was included in The Book of Trades, and looked like this in one edition.

On critic, writing about Luyken’s Cooper, has the following to say:

Luyken’s rapid treatment of the work is accentuated by the use of quick brush strokes in the watercolour highlights. The cooper, who is outside his workshop, is attaching the barrel staves which he has shaped and positioned in the background, his colleague is coating the inside of a barrel with wax.

You can read Luyken’s biography at Wikipedia or at Scroll Publishing. You can also see the rest of the engravings from The Book of Trades and you can see other works at WikiGallery. Also, his biblical set, Martyrs Mirror, from 1685, can be seen at Bethel College’s website.