Jonge moeder met kinderen en een kat in een rustiek interieur c. 1763 - 1770

Jean Charles Le Vasseur created this print, ‘Young mother with children and a cat in a rustic interior’, using etching and engraving. Engraving is an intaglio process. The artist would have used a tool called a burin to manually carve lines into a copper plate. Etching uses acid to cut into the metal, allowing for softer lines. The etched plate is then inked, and the surface wiped clean, so that ink remains only in the incised lines. High pressure is applied to transfer the ink to paper. This print is a reproduction of a painting by François Boucher, who captured the leisured lives of the French elite. As such, it is deeply implicated in the culture of 18th-century consumerism, and the labor required to produce luxury goods. This highly skilled reproductive process made imagery like this accessible to a wider audience, helping to fuel consumer desire across the social classes. Paying attention to the materials and methods of production is essential to understanding the full meaning of an artwork, challenging any high/low divide.