Twee staande breisters in een landschap in Ede c. 1897

Willem Witsen made this print, "Two Knitting Women in a Landscape in Ede," using etching, a printmaking process that relies on the corrosive action of acid. Here, Witsen coated a metal plate with a waxy, acid-resistant substance, and then drew his image through this coating, exposing the metal. The plate was then immersed in acid, which bit into the exposed lines. By varying the depth of the etch, he created a range of tones, from the deepest blacks of the women's stockings to the delicate grays of the sky. What's interesting here is the interplay between industry and craft. While printmaking itself is a somewhat industrialized process, churning out identical images on a press, the image captures a decidedly non-industrial form of making: knitting. Knitting, of course, can be industrialized as well, but here, we get a sense of the women's labor as being connected to the land, a local handicraft. Considering materials and processes allows us to appreciate the labor both represented and involved in the work.