Pijprokende man op een stoel 1868 - 1910

This etching, by Edgard Farasyn, shows a man smoking a pipe while seated on a chair. It's made with an etching technique, a printmaking process that relies on acid to bite into a metal plate, in this case likely copper or zinc. The artist would have painstakingly covered the plate with a waxy, acid-resistant ground, and then scratched an image into it with a sharp needle. This exposed the metal beneath. When the plate was dipped in acid, the lines were etched, creating grooves that would hold ink. What I find remarkable is how Farasyn uses these processes to capture a sense of daily life, and of labor. Look at the etched lines that define his clothes, and the way the etched marks on the face, the hands and the pipe create a contrast between shadow and light. The print becomes an object, and the skills of the artist a testament to both creative expression, and the everyday. It blurs the lines between art and craft.