Portret van Joseph Treyer 1782

This is a portrait of Joseph Treyer, made by Simon Charles Miger, sometime between 1736 and 1820. It's an engraving, a printmaking process where lines are incised into a metal plate, which is then inked and pressed onto paper. Notice the crispness of the lines, and the way Miger uses hatching to create a sense of volume in Treyer's face and wig. These details weren't achieved with a quick sketch; they resulted from skilled labor, and meticulous, repetitive work. Engraving was a commercial process, often used for reproducing images on a mass scale. This print might have been part of a series of portraits, sold to a wide audience. There's a fascinating tension here: the portrait memorializes an individual, yet it was produced through a process geared toward broader circulation, reflecting the intersection of art, craft, and commerce in the 18th century. Looking closely at materials and making helps us appreciate not only the skill of the artist, but also the social and economic context in which the work was created.