Anders Zorn etchings: the Swedish master collectors are quietly chasing
Anders Zorn’s paintings sell for millions, but his etchings tell a quieter story. Bonhams sales show signed, lifetime impressions changing hands for a few hundred to a couple of thousand pounds, drawing a steady stream of collectors rather than headlines. Here’s what the market shows, why prices vary from plate to plate, and what to check before buying your first Zorn etching.
2026-08-21
Berthe Morisot: the overlooked Impressionist whose etchings are finally getting noticed
Berthe Morisot outsold Monet and Renoir at auction in 1875 and helped found Impressionism, yet her small run of drypoint etchings has spent decades as the most overlooked part of her work. Two Bonhams sales tell the story: $300 in 2007, $400 in 2013, against paintings now estimated in the millions. New retrospectives in Genoa and San Francisco are putting that gap under scrutiny.
Gustave Doré etchings: the visionary illustrator’s most haunting prints
Gustave Doré illustrated Dante’s Inferno, the Bible and Poe’s Raven with images that still unsettle readers. Almost none of it was etched: it was wood-engraved, cut by block-cutters and run off by the million on cylinder presses. This guide traces his darkest commissions and the market for what survives, rare drawings, blocks and one-off gouaches, now worth far more than the books they illustrated.
Albrecht Dürer etchings: a beginner’s guide to the father of printmaking
Albrecht Dürer made only six etchings, all on iron plates that rusted as he printed them. This beginner’s guide explains why he gave up on the medium, how to tell a woodcut from an engraving, what Meder grades do to a price, and how to spot the photogravure facsimiles still circulating under his name. With verified auction prices from £1,125 upwards.
2026-08-20
Goya’s etchings: inside the dark, radical prints that shocked Europe
Francisco Goya spent thirty years turning copper plates into the darkest images of his age. Los Caprichos was pulled from sale after fourteen days with the Inquisition circling, and two later series waited until he had been dead for decades. Here is what the four sets contain, and why a first edition can make more than ten times a later printing.
