Lady with Feather in Her Hair, Transparent Collar and Satchel at Her Waist, from the cycle Ornatus Mulieribus

Hollar’s Reisbüchlein series was published in the Cologne workshop of Abraham Hogenberg in 1636; in it, Hollar depicted various figural themes and costumes in Germany and the Low Countries (where he had travelled in 1634). In 1636, however, he followed his patron Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, to England. While there, he did cycles with female figural motifs, the one of which, Ornatus Mulieribus, was published in 1639-1640. It depicts a variety of women’s costumes: rural and urban, summer and winter. He ordered the costume scenes with numbers, though they follow no chronological weather-related order. It was while working on them, however, that Hollar may have got the idea to employ these motifs and his rare skills to render different genteel fabrics and furs in his newly conceived Four Seasons cycle.