Description
Etching on imperial Japan paper, printed in black, numbered 3/5 — Rensburg’s most prestigious documented print commission, executed for the open-air production of King Oedipus by Het Tooneel under Willem Royaards, which premiered on 10 September 1913 in Park Sonsbeek, Arnhem.
The plate carries the dedication ‘Dr. Willem Royaards / Openluchtvoorstelling te Arnhem’ and the inscription DEL AD VIV — delineavit ad vivum, ‘drawn from life’. The commission comprised, besides this large print, some three hundred smaller impressions for members of the production company. That Rensburg printed and numbered his etchings himself accords with the public printing demonstrations in which he later presented the craft to audiences.
Printmaking was the ground on which contemporary critics valued Rensburg most consistently: his etchings and pen drawings generally received the best notices in the press. In 1922 the municipal museum of Arnhem acquired the Oedipus print together with seven Arnhem drawings (partially confirmed) — among the earliest institutional purchases of his work on record.
Provenance: documented through the specialist antiquarian Fokas Holthuis, newsletter 976, no. 36 (gallery documentation).
