Old master prints are suddenly hot: why searches just jumped
A Rembrandt drypoint just broke the world auction record for any old master print, and the IFPDA Print Fair has never been busier. Behind the headline lies a market of tiny technical distinctions, where a sharp early impression and a worn late one differ tenfold in price. Here is what is driving the surge in etchings and engravings, and how to buy in without Christie’s-level money.
2026-08-25
James Ensor etchings: inside the Belgian master’s macabre visions
James Ensor turned etching into a weapon. His skeletons stood in for his own mortality, and King Leopold II was reduced to a joke about excrement. This guide traces the Belgian master’s macabre prints from their 1886 origins as a cheap alternative to painting, through to what they fetch now: a signed etching under £2,500, or a political rarity estimated at £30,000 to £50,000.
2026-08-24
Rubens etchings 101: A beginner’s guide to the Flemish master’s rare prints
Peter Paul Rubens barely touched an etching needle, yet he built one of Europe’s first organised print businesses, hiring engravers such as Vorsterman, Pontius and the Bolswert brothers to reproduce his paintings under strict supervision. This beginner’s guide explains the one etching that might be by his own hand, how the workshop operated, and what these rare prints sell for at auction today.
Thomas Moran etchings: the American landscape master behind Yellowstone’s fame
Thomas Moran’s paintings persuaded Congress to create Yellowstone National Park, but his etchings tell a quieter story. Made from copper plates he bit and inked himself, in numbers a plate could survive rather than a fixed edition, these prints are the most affordable link to an artist whose oils now sell for millions. This guide covers his life, etching career and what collectors pay today.
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.
