Exclusive Artwork at Galleria Balmain
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The Visscher 1616 engraving
Visscher Redrawn 2016
The Visscher 1616 engraving and Visscher Redrawn 2016.
The Visscher Redrawn 2016, is a modern London panorama. This original hand drawn pen and ink revision by celebrated artist Robin Charles Reynolds, took 2 years to complete. This highly conceptional piece was created to celebrate William Shakespeare’s 400th birthday, and first exhibited at London’s Guildhall art gallery in 2016.
A fantastic aspect of the work is a hidden puzzle within the drawing. There are visual references to lines from 41 Shakespeare plays and poems.
Origin.
This highly original piece first came about when Robin had researched the 1616 Dutch engraving by Claes Jansz Visscher’s original London cityscape. This original London engraving was the first known of its kind. Robin’s modern version sought to arrange his artwork exactly as Visscher had. Though he admits the scale of the engraved buildings is nowhere near exact. Churches in particular were given more importance, but not drawn to scale.
Robin was, pursuing fantasy drawing in the mid-1900s when the idea for a modern London panorama in the fashion of Visscher’s 1616 engraving came about. He recognized his pen and ink style, had something reminiscent of the Renaissance engravers work. This after obtaining a photographic copy of Visscher’s view from the Museum of London. Although his idea only became a reality in 2007 after retiring from the BBC, as head of history projects and heritage collections. He suddenly had the time to undertake the required research, but realizing that the ideal target date would be 2016 – the 400th Visscher engraving anniversary, it put the idea on hold again!
Beginnings.
Encouraged by his friend and publicist Richard Peel, in 2014, he finally began work on the 2016 London panorama. Robin sought advice from a paper conservationist about which materials to use and the process. Two objectives had to be overcome! 1. To produce a work on paper that would last 400 years. And 2. Minimise wear and tear on 2.5 meres of heavy drawing paper during the long, labor intensive 2 years to finish the artwork.
Problem solving!
The ingenious use of a scroll box designed and built by a local carpenter became the saving grace tool Robin used. Allowing him to draw sections at a time, the finished artwork was safe inside the box! The scroll box also became invaluable when transporting the piece to show historians, topographers, city planners, and others for advice.
The panorama was completed in 2016, with the aim to portray London as it was then. However, Southwark had to be researched earlier, and what can be seen in the foreground is the Southwark of 2014.
Claes Jansz Visscher.
Biographical information is sketchy. He was born in Amsterdam around 1586-7. The son of a shipyard carpenter, he identified his talents at an early age. And, is believed to have studied under the Flemish painter David Vinckboons.
By the age of 18 Visscher was working for the publisher Willem Jansz Blaeu on a huge world map printed from twenty copper plates. But within two years he produced work in which he identified himself as the publisher and artist. In time he became one of the largest print publishers in Europe, producing maps, cityscapes and other topographical publications as well as landscapes.
Around 1,000 pieces originated in his workshop, and the family business generated prints from more than 4,000 second-hand plates.
Artistic leanings.
As an artist Visscher appears to have enjoyed creating landscape scenes, but religion was important to him personally, and to his business. In the age of the Dutch Revolt (1560s to 1648) against the Catholic Spanish, new protestant bibles emerged in Germany and the Netherlands. Visscher was an arch-Calvinist, producing many biblical maps and landscapes. He also produced a number of graphic topical prints, depicting the torture and execution of Catholic and other religious adversaries.
Visscher died in 1652, but the family business prospered into the eighteenth century in the hands of his son Nicolaes Visscher I (1618– 1679), and grandson, Nicolaes Visscher II (1649–1702).
Robin Charles Reynolds
Born in Zimbabwe in 1952, Robin lives and works in England. His professional background is journalism and business communication. He worked at the BBC for 23 years and was latterly head of the BBC’s art, history and collections unit (BBC Heritage).
As a semi-professional draughtsman he produced pocket illustrations. Including a series of Dickens characters, for newspapers and magazines. And for a time he was a regular contributor to Popular Gardening magazine.
He had an exhibition of larger pieces in Luton in 1981, but for many years the demands of family life and work limited his activities as an artist. Though he created fantasy pieces for the amusement of friends. Now retired, he works full-time on images that have historic resonance for general and specific markets.
Future exhibitions.
Included is a tricentennial panorama of New Orleans. The fantastical artwork is underpinned by a visual parade of imagery charting the progress of the city from swampland to modern metropolis. The work, compiled in collaboration with The Historic New Orleans Collection, is supported by an interactive guide developed by Robin’s brother Simon.
He has also produced a graphic history of the Tower of London. More exclusive exhibitions of Robins work are already being arranged for 2026.