Portret van schilder Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem 1827 - 1854

Nicolas Maurin created this lithograph portrait of painter Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem sometime in the first half of the 19th century. Lithography is a printmaking process where the artist draws an image with a greasy crayon onto a flat stone or metal plate. The stone is then treated so that ink adheres only to the greasy areas, and repelled by the wet, non-drawn areas. The resulting print gives a soft, velvety quality, evident in the subtle gradations of tone across Berchem’s face and clothing. Look closely, and you can see the fine, almost imperceptible texture that results from the lithographic process. It’s a process that allows for a high degree of detail, and that would have been commercially attractive at the time. Consider the division of labor implied here: Berchem, the celebrated painter, and Maurin, the printmaker, each contributing distinct skills to the production of this image. This points to a key transformation in the art world, where mechanical reproduction enabled wider access to images, but also introduced new hierarchies of artistic labor. This print invites us to consider the social and economic conditions that shape artistic production, and the value we place on different forms of creative work.