Expressief portret van een eenogige drinker 1733 - 1797

Curator: This is "Expressief portret van een eenogige drinker," an engraving by Pierre François Basan, dating somewhere between 1733 and 1797. Editor: Wow, what a face! It’s intensely grotesque, almost theatrical. The asymmetry of the winking eye and wide-open stare creates such an unsettling effect. Curator: Absolutely. And it's worth noting the engraving technique itself. See how the fine lines create volume and texture, especially in the face and hair? It was a very labor-intensive process, requiring immense skill in manipulating the burin across the copper plate. The quality of the print depended on the consistency of the materials – the paper, the ink, and the plate itself – and the press. Editor: It feels like this print participates in a larger cultural commentary. The Rococo style was popular during this period and associated with opulence, and leisure. But here, this fellow is the complete opposite, quite vulgar, you could argue. Considering the rise of Enlightenment ideals about the common man, perhaps Basan is trying to highlight the extremes within society. How the laboring classes lived compared to nobility? Curator: That’s a really interesting reading. I would add that caricature as a form exploded at this time. There was a hunger for these types of mass produced images that both satirized but also codified physiognomy, as a kind of “science”. How people looked became tightly bound with how their supposed interior lives. I do wonder how someone would have consumed it, printed on relatively cheap paper? Where did this image circulate, beyond the walls of the elite collectors? Editor: It speaks to broader themes of class, privilege, and the power of representation. Was this print meant as a moral lesson, or simply to poke fun at someone? It certainly seems to invite scrutiny, judgment even. Curator: Right. The artist is clearly playing with ideas around consumption, literal in this case. The material of the image - its availability via printmaking processes, puts it in circulation in many hands. I'm fascinated by its journey through time and space. Editor: Ultimately, Basan gives us a moment to reflect on societal inequities but perhaps perpetuates stereotypes while doing so. Thanks for bringing this important context.