Boerderij met schuur 1855 - 1904

This is an etching made by Arnoud Schaepkens, depicting a farm with a barn. Etching is a printmaking process which relies on the corrosive power of acid to make marks in a metal plate. The plate is covered with a waxy ground, and the artist scratches through this ground with a needle to expose the metal. The plate is then immersed in acid, which bites into the exposed lines, creating an image that can then be printed. Schaepkens’ consistent hatching gives the print a sense of depth and volume. The texture of the lines also echoes the rough materiality of the farm buildings themselves. The subject here, a simple rural structure, relates to wider issues of labor and class, and asks us to look at the built environment as itself a kind of material culture. The print also demonstrates how techniques from craft and design can be incorporated into the fine arts. By attending to these materials, making processes, and contexts, we arrive at a fuller understanding of the artwork.