Christina Chalon

The album with works by Christina Chalon in the Morgan Library--probably the largest collection of the artist's drawings now known--contains 106 drawings and 17 etchings. The works are organized in three separate sections: the first (unnamed) begins with ten of Chalon's earliest drawings; these are followed by eight examples "...gewassen met Oostindise Inkt en Roet" (i.e. with gray wash and red [chalk]), beginning on fol. 11; the "gecouleurde" (colored) drawings start on fol. 36.
Several of Chalon's compositions in the Morgan Library's album were etched. The prints after fols. 7, 9, 22, 47, 48, and 52, which are pasted immediately beneath the drawings or on the following page, are by the Leiden printmaker Nicolaas van der Worm (1757-1828). Two states of the etchings after fols. 7 and 9 are preserved in the Morgan album: they appear immediately below the related drawings, as well as on the same sheet as fols. 47 and 48. Curiously, all the etchings by Worm are in the same direction as the original drawings. In each case, except for the first state of the prints after fols. 7 and 9, these etchings carry the monogram of both the artist and the etcher.
The plates for another group of etchings, after fols. 53, 71, 77, 84-7, and 106, were engraved by the Leiden printmaker Johannes Christianus Janson (1763-1823). Although the print after fol. 77 is signed "C. Chalon inv." and "J.C. Janson Sculp," none of the others in this group carries a signature or monogram. According to the inscription on the album page, fol. 24 was also etched by Janson, but no impression of the print is included in the Morgan album.