Fotoreproductie van De jonge toverheks door Antoine Wiertz before 1868

This photogravure of Antoine Wiertz's painting, The Young Witch, was made by Edmond Fierlants, and demonstrates the increasing role of reproductive technologies in the 19th century art world. Photogravure is an intaglio printmaking process, using photographic images transferred to a metal plate, and then etched. It is labor-intensive, involving skilled technicians, and specialized materials. In contrast to mass-produced prints, photogravure offered a richer tonal range and more refined detail, closer to the original artwork. Think about the layers of labor involved here: Wiertz's physical act of painting, Fierlants's skilled work in capturing and translating that image through photography and etching, and the manual work of the printer in creating each individual print. This was a pre-digital moment, when images still required considerable human skill to produce and disseminate, and blurs the lines between art, craft, and industry.