Portret van Karel II van Engeland 1818 - 1873

Curator: This is a print portraying King Charles II of England, created sometime between 1818 and 1873 by Charles-Amédée Colin. It's rendered as an engraving. What strikes you initially about this image? Editor: He looks...tired. Power is such a drag, isn’t it? The monochrome actually emphasizes the weariness, like a faded photograph from a long life. I can't help but notice the repetitive marks of the engraving forming the image. Curator: Yes, it does carry a sense of melancholy. The artist has skillfully used line work to create shading and depth. Considering its a print, what does it tell us about the economics of art making at the time? Editor: Precisely. Engravings democratized image production and distribution in ways painting couldn't. We are talking cheaper, repeatable, commodifiable, fit for mass consumption, but also a particular skilled form of labour Curator: True, prints played a huge role in disseminating imagery and ideas across society, but beyond the mechanical process, Romanticism is at play. I see elements of realism in capturing Charles' features. Editor: For sure, it's that interplay of mass production and individual authorship. Romanticism had a complicated relationship with industrial processes— often critiquing them whilst being reproduced as commodities within it. So the line becomes fascinating, its both literal, descriptive as well as functional in mass-production terms. Curator: Exactly. I think that tension adds depth. The print prompts us to think not only about royal portraiture, but the infrastructure that gave this image its reach, too. Editor: Agreed. This simple monochrome carries a multitude of perspectives, of craft, politics, and dissemination. Curator: It definitely does make us question who and how we consume images. Editor: I come away feeling a renewed appreciation for the process of art and it's reach beyond the purely aesthetic.