Victim of a Fire (Victime d'un incendie) 

Curator: The Alphonse Legros etching, titled *Victim of a Fire,* really hits me in the gut. The artist created the print through the labor intensive method of etching, a type of printmaking, from the tangible materials of metal, acid, and ink. This is all about the social context. The narrative of destruction in contrast with the handmade quality tells a sad story. What do you see in this piece? Editor: I see exactly what you mean. The image, spare as it is, communicates so much tragedy. A man lies exhausted next to a sleeping child. But what strikes me most is the level of detail created through those lines and shading! Are we supposed to focus more on the "Victim" than the method, given the artwork title? Curator: That’s a good question. We are meant to contemplate the “Victim,” but the ‘how’ it was made is just as important as what’s depicted. The artist's choice to use etching--with all its physical demands--forces us to confront the socio-economic realities facing those who endured loss. The labor to create this print reflects on the labor the man lost through tragedy. Note the attention devoted to the bare, aged body through densely clustered line-work; how might those areas suggest how Legros regarded the dignity of work and production of meaning in working class lives? Editor: Ah, now I see it! The method reflects the social position of the subject: this contrasts the high art, “artist labor”, and "subject labor”. Now I wonder what impact his social status had on his access to art making. Curator: Precisely! Consider then who was allowed into the art world as either a creator or consumer? This print certainly complicates what the late 19th-century viewer believed about class and labor. What do you make of the lines composing this image, their roughness and visible presence on the print? Editor: So the labor intensiveness underscores this meaning, but without being maudlin about it. I guess I'll never see printmaking the same way again! Curator: Agreed, looking at art from the perspective of production and the artist’s choices adds a dimension beyond the literal depiction.