Gezicht op een meer met aan de oever schapen en een rustende herderin 1873 - 1874

This is "Gezicht op een meer met aan de oever schapen en een rustende herderin" made by Théophile Chauvel, using etching and paper. Look closely, and you'll see that the image has been built up from many tiny parallel lines. This is the telltale sign of the etching process, which involves drawing into a wax ground on a metal plate, then immersing the plate in acid, which bites away the exposed lines. The etcher controls the depth of line through careful management of this chemical process. The plate is then inked and printed. This was a commercially viable process in the 19th century, used to reproduce imagery for a growing middle class hungry for accessible art. The finished print gives us a glimpse into an idyllic rural scene, seemingly far removed from the industrial labor that made its creation possible. But in fact, it is intimately connected. We are reminded that art and labor were intertwined, even in seemingly pastoral scenes like this one.