Het jagersleven 1881

"Het jagersleven," or "The Hunter's Life" by De Ruyter & Meijer, is a print made using chromolithography, a color printing technique that gained popularity in the 19th century. Each individual color you see required a separate stone or plate to be made, inked, and then printed onto the paper in careful registration. Look closely, and you can see how these many layers combine to create a range of hues and tones, from the green of the forest to the warm interiors. This technique, developed during the Industrial Revolution, allowed for the mass production of colorful images, making art more accessible to a wider audience. However, the labor-intensive process also highlights the often-unseen work behind these images, from the artists who created the original designs to the skilled printers who brought them to life. Chromolithography was not just a method of reproduction, but a means of democratizing art, blurring the lines between high art and popular culture.