Landschap met figuren 1776 - 1825

This print, Landschap met figuren, was made by Johannes Christiaan Bendorp in the late 18th or early 19th century. It is an etching, a printmaking technique that involves using acid to corrode lines into a metal plate, which is then inked and printed. Look closely, and you will see that the composition depends entirely on line – hatched and cross-hatched to create a sense of light and shadow. The figures in the landscape are rendered with the same meticulous detail as the trees and clouds. The artist likely spent hours, perhaps days, incising the image into the metal. The labor-intensive nature of etching contrasts sharply with the subject matter: a tranquil, idealized landscape, complete with resting travelers and livestock. This underscores a tension inherent in printmaking, where mass-produced images are created through skilled, painstaking work, often hidden from view. In appreciating this print, we must recognize the hand that made it, as well as the scene it depicts.