Het Hooge Land. Beekbergen 1896

Jan Toorop created 'Het Hooge Land. Beekbergen' using lithography, a printmaking process that allows for detailed, linear designs like we see here. Unlike painting or sculpture, printmaking enables the wide distribution of images, making art more accessible. The stylized composition reflects the influence of Art Nouveau, which embraced both fine art and the decorative arts. The tools depicted, like spades and shears, root the image in the specifics of manual labor and agricultural life. These working implements are elevated to the same aesthetic level as the idealized central figure, connecting labor, politics and consumption. Consider the amount of work involved in creating a lithograph. Toorop would have drawn the image on a stone or metal plate, which was then chemically treated to accept ink only in the drawn areas. This plate could then be used to create multiple impressions. Appreciating this process allows us to see how Toorop challenged traditional distinctions between fine art and craft, and engaged with wider social issues of labor.