Bakker blaast op een hoorn 1800 - 1884

Curator: Here we have François de Maleck's etching, "Bakker blaast op een hoorn," placing its creation somewhere between 1800 and 1884. What's your initial impression? Editor: Intimate. Like a stolen glance into someone's life. The baker looks like he is sharing his horn music only to me, just briefly resting before more labors and tasks. The print is so textured it feels worn and lived in, even like the callused hand of the subject. Curator: It's a marvelous genre piece, very much within the realist tradition of its time, focusing on everyday life. Etching, as a printmaking process, allowed for relatively inexpensive reproduction. These images would have circulated widely, informing public perceptions of the working class. Editor: I imagine a working baker with his plain cap having a small respite and sounding his instrument out the cottage window... it looks like such an ad hoc implement... Did he make it himself or buy it in the market? I see this rustic and spontaneous music reaching far and wide to make one feel hopeful... a musical proclamation and call to action from a working man toiling to deliver basic sustenance. Curator: Exactly! Consider the materials and the artist's labor. The copper plate, the acid used to bite the image, the paper. The access to these materials and skill was likely a specialized service from merchant suppliers. The print flattens the social hierarchy for the viewer—to offer a snapshot, even to invite the observer in the home—but also it creates a document for trade and future consumption. The hand of the artisan and the means to display him creates value to these wares, you could say. Editor: Thinking about it further... the dark and dense shading really sets the mood. He looks pensively up into a new horizon, as if looking hopefully far into the future. This image brings back a feeling of nostalgia for simpler times when craftsmanship, community and art all came directly from one's personal labor, the fruits of life directly enjoyed. Curator: Well, this has certainly offered me a fresh lens to view this work, and perhaps it gives our audience something to consider as well. Editor: Yes, seeing his image through that perspective truly makes me think twice about the daily toils behind every piece of bread I enjoy... I appreciate this image all the more now.