Les boeufs 1902

Pieter Dupont made this print, Les boeufs, with etching. The tones are all monochrome—greys and blacks, but it is full of movement. I can just imagine him crafting the scene bit by bit, as the plate slowly comes to life. Look at those animals, can't you just feel their physical presence? I'm thinking of the work of artists like Rosa Bonheur, only here we have Dupont using line to delineate the forms of the animals instead of color. It makes me think about the labor of the farmer, the toil of the oxen. What was he thinking about as he captured this scene? Maybe he wanted to show the cooperation between human and animal, how we work together. Or perhaps he wanted to immortalize these working animals.