Zeepbellen blazende jongen 1761

Johann Georg Wille created this engraving, Zeepbellen blazende jongen, using a painstaking method of incising lines into a copper plate. The fineness of the lines, and the control required to create them, speaks to the skill involved. Consider the material impact of this process. The pressure needed to cut the lines, the way the metal would resist and yield: these would all determine the final image. Look closely at the varying densities of lines that define the form of the boy, his clothes, and even the ephemeral soap bubble. Engraving like this was not just a means of artistic expression. It was also a reproductive technology. Prints like this allowed images to circulate widely, contributing to the growth of a consumer culture, and to ideas of childhood, fashion, and leisure. It's a reminder that even the most delicate-seeming artworks are embedded in broader social and economic systems. They are not separate from them.