Illustratie voor Le petit chien uit Contes et nouvelles van Fontaine 1685

This illustration for La Fontaine’s “Le petit chien” was made by Romeyn de Hooghe, and it's a tiny thing, just a few inches across. It’s an etching, meaning the artist scratched an image into a wax-coated metal plate, then bathed it in acid, which bit into the exposed lines. Consider the amount of labor involved in making something so small, and how many of these tiny lines de Hooghe had to create to give a sense of space and texture to the overall image, with the cross-hatched shadows of the figures, the ornamental curtain, and the tiled floor. Although etchings like this could be reproduced many times, they were still luxury objects. This one was made as an illustration to accompany one of La Fontaine’s “Contes,” and were usually intended for the wealthy and well-educated. The print is a product of its time, in terms of technique and the social world it depicts, yet it also offers a timeless meditation on class, labor, and the power of images themselves.