Landschap met roeiboot op een rivier, drie herders en vee Possibly 1777

This landscape with a rowboat, made in 1777 by Richard Earlom, is not a painting, but an etching. This means that the image was incised into a metal plate, inked, and then printed onto paper. Look closely, and you’ll notice the subtle tonal gradations, achieved through careful control of the etching process. Earlom wasn’t just reproducing an image; he was demonstrating his mastery of a highly skilled craft. The printing press was an industrial technology, capable of churning out images at scale, and Earlom was part of that world. Yet he was also an artist, capable of coaxing incredible nuances from his materials. The print medium allowed for the wide distribution of landscape imagery, meeting a growing demand among the middle classes. Earlom was thus positioned at the intersection of artistic skill, industrial production, and market forces. This challenges any rigid distinction between art and craft, inviting us to appreciate the rich context of its making.