Kwakzalver verkoopt zijn waren 1648

Adriaen van Ostade made this print, "Quack Salver Selling his Wares," using etching, a printmaking process, in the Dutch Golden Age. The labor here is implicit. The artist would have painstakingly drawn into a waxy ground on a metal plate, then bathed it in acid, and finally printed it. But what about the scene depicted? It shows another kind of worker. A medicine peddler makes his pitch to a small crowd. Van Ostade clearly had a keen eye for human behavior. The material and process here – etching – is critical. It allowed for the relatively quick reproduction of images. Prints like this one were affordable and widely distributed, thus democratizing access to art, and also functioned as a kind of social commentary. Here, the world of labor, commerce, and the everyday lives of ordinary people come to the fore. Van Ostade reminds us that art is not just about grand subjects, but also about the material realities of life.