Vrouwen vinden een lichaam onder een bed 1705 - 1772

Gabriel Huquier made this print, titled "Women Find a Body Under a Bed," in the 18th century. It is an etching, meaning that the image was created by incising lines into a metal plate, inking the plate, and then pressing it onto paper. Etchings like this one were often made in multiples, making art accessible to a wider audience. Consider the labor involved: the skilled hand of the artist carefully cutting lines into the metal, the repetitive task of inking and printing. This was a commercial operation, part of a burgeoning print market catering to the tastes of the rising middle class. The scene itself, with its dramatic discovery and horrified reactions, speaks to the social anxieties of the time. It reminds us that even seemingly frivolous images are embedded in a network of materials, processes, and social relations. The very act of its making, the multiplication of images, hints at larger shifts in labor, consumption, and the democratization of taste.