Twee mannen in een dorpscafé te Derbyshire 1797

This print, ‘Two Men in a Village Alehouse in Derbyshire,’ was made in 1797 by Isaac Cruikshank using etching, a printmaking technique that democratized image production. The linear quality owes to the way an etching is made: the artist draws with a sharp needle into a wax ground coating a metal plate, which is then submerged in acid. The acid bites into the exposed lines, and these are then inked to make the print. The result is quite different from an engraving, which requires the laborious cutting of lines directly into a metal plate with a tool called a burin. Etching allowed for far greater freedom and speed. This was ideal for social satire like this, which depends on the quick circulation of imagery. Here, Cruikshank wryly captures the habits of working-class men as they socialized. With its relatively inexpensive production, this print could be distributed widely, and helped to shape public perception of everyday life.