Oh How Beautiful is God's Nature n.d.

Johann Heinrich Lips created this print, “Oh How Beautiful is God’s Nature,” using etching and engraving, line by line, into a copper plate. The amount of work involved in this printmaking process cannot be overstated, and neither can its social context. Prints like this one facilitated the spread of ideas during the Enlightenment. Unlike painting or sculpture, prints could be reproduced and distributed widely. This made art accessible to a broader audience, democratizing access to culture, but also intensifying the debates about class, politics, and consumption that were already raging in the 18th century. Lips’s virtuous, clean lines are in keeping with the Neoclassical style that was then ascendant. We see a father and child gazing at a landscape, but in a broader sense we see the social ideals of the era: reason, order, and an appreciation for the natural world. With an image like this, Lips shows us that the material and the making are always culturally significant.