Wijsgeer houdt een redevoering voor een slapend publiek 1800 - 1805

This print, Wijsgeer houdt een redevoering voor een slapend publiek, was made by Jacob Ernst Marcus, likely using etching and engraving techniques to create the design on a metal plate. He would then apply ink and press it onto paper. The lines are crisp and the details fine, showing his skill. But it's the print's satirical content, a lecture putting its audience to sleep, that really grabs you. The scene reveals a great deal about class and social hierarchies. The speaker is animated and engaged, but the audience is bored and disengaged. This suggests a critique of intellectualism disconnected from the realities of everyday life. It also speaks to the working conditions of artists like Marcus, who relied on patronage and had to navigate the tastes of a potentially indifferent audience. The humor is not just in the image, but in the labor implied—the labor of the speaker, the labor of the artist, and the "labor" of the audience forced to sit through it all. So next time, when you think of prints, remember it's not just about the image. It's about the whole social world brought into being by the printmaking process.