Cows at the Watering Place 1862

Charles-François Daubigny created this print, Cows at the Watering Place, using etching, a process rooted in craft and industrial production. An etcher carefully coats a metal plate with a waxy, acid-resistant ground. The image is then scratched into this surface, exposing the metal underneath. When the plate is submerged in acid, the exposed lines are eaten away, creating grooves that will hold ink. The plate is inked, wiped clean, and then pressed onto paper, transferring the image. Here, the velvety blacks and nuanced grays showcase Daubigny's mastery of the etching technique, a process capable of capturing subtle tonal variations. It is possible that he used a soft ground, giving the image a soft, hazy quality, evocative of the landscape itself. The print captures a sense of rural life. By embracing printmaking, Daubigny democratized access to art, enabling the distribution of his vision to a wider audience, and blurring the boundaries between high art and the skilled crafts of reproduction.