Twee figuurstudies van boerin zittend op hooibaal 1796 - 1849

Albertus Brondgeest created these two figure studies of a farmer's wife sat on a hay bale in the 1800s, using etching. This is a printmaking technique that uses acid to cut into a metal plate, in order to create a design. The plate would have been covered with a waxy ground, through which the image was scratched, exposing the metal. The material qualities of the etched line allow for a great deal of detail, but note how the cross-hatching is particularly dense in the figure on the left, giving a sense of weight and solidity. We can almost feel the density of the hay bale, compared to the relative lightness of the study on the right, where the etching is more sparse. In both cases, Brondgeest captured the postures of labor, of a woman whose body is used to physical exertion, and the material conditions of rural life. By turning the tools of etching to this subject, he elevates it from everyday observation to a comment on the lives of working people.