Gezicht op fort Rotterdam in Makasser 1843 - 1845

This print, "Gezicht op fort Rotterdam in Makasser", or "View of Fort Rotterdam in Makassar," was made by Paulus Lauters. Lauters was a landscape painter, who also produced prints like this one. The printmaking process is an interesting one, and it would have involved Lauters creating a drawing, which was then transferred to a printing plate. The printmaker would then have used tools to cut away areas of the plate, leaving the lines of the image raised. Ink would then have been applied to the plate, and the image transferred to paper. This process is called "line engraving" or "etching", and it would have been a skilled and laborious process. The resulting print would have been a multiple, meaning that many copies could be made from the same plate. In this way, printmaking could be seen as an early form of mass production, and prints like this one would have been an important way of disseminating information and ideas. By focusing on the labor involved in the production process, and understanding the social context in which the work was made, we can gain a fuller appreciation of its meaning and significance.