Pieter Feddes

1585 – 1634

Pieter Feddes (Pieter van Harlingen), Dutch etcher, painter and poet. Like his fellow townsman Simon Frisius, Feddes was one of the few early 17th-century Dutch printmakers to practice etching rather than engraving. He etched in soft-ground but sometimes also used the engraver's burin on his plates. The earliest dated prints of 1611-15 include the frontispiece for a drawing booklet and a number of apparently related, etched copies of drawings. These sheets were associated in a hypothetical reconstruction of the second oldest drawing book in the Netherlands. His other etchings depict allegories, biblical and mythological scenes, (royal) portraits, townscapes and Frisian costumes, from which the book illustrations stand out as a group. They were published mainly in Leeuwarden (1614, 1619), where he lived from 1615, and Fraeneker (1619, 1620 and 1622). Of his paintings, a number of portraits have survived as well as a Diana and her Nymphs Surprised by Satyrs (Hoorn, Westfries Museum).

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