Portret van de rechtsgeleerde Adolph Ypeij 1804

This is a portrait of the lawyer Adolph Ypeij, made by Ludwig Gottlieb Portman. It's a stipple engraving - a printmaking technique involving thousands of tiny dots, creating tone through their density. The artistry here isn’t about bravura mark-making but the patient, painstaking labor involved in the process. The matrix for a stipple engraving, traditionally a copper plate, would have been prepared with a roughened surface to better hold the ink. Then, using a tool with a very fine point, the artist would create the image dot by dot. Look closely, and you’ll see how these coalesce to produce the likeness of Ypeij. Engraving like this was a reproductive medium. It allowed images to circulate widely, playing a crucial role in spreading ideas and visual culture. As such, it was a thoroughly commercial practice, highly skilled, but ultimately a means to an end. By understanding the material process, we see this image not just as a portrait but as a product of its time.