Portrait of Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland c. 1802

This is a portrait of Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, made by Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Müller, using a technique called etching. Look closely and you’ll see it’s comprised of thousands of tiny etched lines that form an image of great nuance. The etcher covers a metal plate with a waxy, acid-resistant ground, then draws an image into that ground with a needle, exposing the metal. The plate is then immersed in acid, which bites into the exposed lines. This process is repeated to achieve darker, deeper lines. The plate is then inked and pressed onto paper, transferring the image. The beauty of an etching like this lies in the control and skill required, and the marks it can achieve. The proliferation of prints like this in the late 18th and early 19th century helped to create a mass audience for imagery, as well as a visual record. This portrait of Hufeland speaks to the growing importance of the individual, and the demand to disseminate such likenesses. So next time you look at an etching, remember, it's not just an image, it's a record of skilled labor and an artifact of an emerging visual culture.