Portret van Anastasius Ludwig Mencke 1798

This is a portrait of Anastasius Ludwig Mencke, made by Friedrich Wilhelm Bollinger in the late 18th or early 19th century. It's an etching, meaning that the artist would have coated a metal plate with wax, drawn into it with a needle, and then bathed the plate in acid. The acid bites into the metal where the wax has been removed, creating recessed lines that hold ink. The resulting print has a distinctive character. Look closely, and you can see that Bollinger used a fine, almost granular texture to build up the image, particularly in the shading of Mencke's face and coat. This was achieved by carefully controlling the etching process, and perhaps by using multiple applications of acid. It is a labor-intensive process, requiring immense skill and precision to produce such an effect. This print demonstrates how a process usually associated with the production of multiples could be used to create a unique and subtle work of art, blurring the lines between craft and fine art.