Lopende man met onder zijn arm een in een doek gewikkelde viool 1852 - 1890

Editor: This is Willem Linnig's etching, "Lopende man met onder zijn arm een in een doek gewikkelde viool," placing its creation somewhere between 1852 and 1890. There's such a sense of weariness conveyed in this figure. What catches your eye? Curator: The print’s emphasis is on production. Consider etching, a repetitive process that demands skilled labor and yields multiples. Here, it democratizes the image, allowing it wider distribution than, say, an original painting could. This aligns with Romanticism's increasing focus on everyday life. Note the contrast: the ‘high art’ associations of the violin juxtaposed with the worker’s apparent poverty and labour of carrying his materials. How does the materiality of the printmaking process itself contribute to this understanding? Editor: I guess I hadn't thought about how accessible prints are. And yes, seeing it as a comment on labor, it does shift the focus away from romanticizing the musician toward acknowledging his working conditions and struggles to even get the tools he needs for music-making. Do you think that was his goal? Curator: I hesitate to say "goal," because that ascribes intentionality, which isn’t necessarily accessible in the artwork alone. But Linnig’s materials and method position this man not just as a purveyor of beauty, but as someone caught within larger networks of labor and consumption, an active participant in a material world. It’s worth remembering the time period - there was increasing production of luxury goods for bourgeois consumption and musical instrument making itself would have seen these processes applied. He’s also an everyman – and printmaking speaks to that directly. Editor: It is definitely worth taking that perspective to explore its materiality and production! Curator: Absolutely. Considering materiality encourages us to ask new questions, to look beyond biographical information, and understand the artwork within broader socioeconomic contexts. Editor: Thank you! Now I'm seeing so much more than just a wandering musician in this etching.