Staand paard en liggend kalf bij een paal 1864

Jacobus Cornelis Gaal made this small etching, 'Standing Horse and Lying Calf by a Post' in 1866. The medium here is not paint, but the relatively modern method of printmaking. The image is created by incising lines into a metal plate, which are then inked and transferred to paper. The resulting image is delicate and detailed, with a tonal range achieved through the density of the etched lines. Though it depicts a pastoral scene, there is nothing particularly rural about etching as a process. It is an urban, mercantile method of image production, a kind of proto-mass media. Etchings like this would have made images available to a wider public, enabling artists to circulate their ideas – or even to simply sell them on the open market. It's important to remember that even seemingly simple artworks like this are the product of a complex web of social and economic relations. Recognizing this helps us to understand the full significance of the work, and to appreciate the artist's skill in bringing it to life.