Stilleven met een haas en patrijs aan een wildkroon 1876

Editor: Here we have Paul Emile Nicolie’s "Still Life with a Hare and Partridge" from 1876. It’s a print, employing etching and engraving. I’m struck by its realism. The dead animals and drinking vessels appear so tangible. What speaks to you most in this work? Curator: What fascinates me are the production processes intertwined within. The print, as a medium, inherently democratizes art. Consider how etching and engraving allowed for wider distribution of this image, effectively placing these luxurious objects—game, fine glassware—into the hands, or at least the view, of a broader public. Editor: So, the material production shaped its reach and audience? Curator: Precisely. We can also think about the labor involved. The hunter, the printmaker, even the people who later consumed such prints; all facets of society are present in this object’s story. It highlights the intricate web of production, circulation, and consumption that defines a particular social moment. Editor: I see, it's not just about representing objects but also about the systems that produce and circulate them. Is there something interesting in how Nicolie creates the scene? Curator: Definitely, think of the deliberate construction of this still life as a consumer spectacle, made palatable through artistic mediation. We need to investigate not only what we are looking at, but who would look, and what that meant in the late 19th Century. It's worth also examining how these images affect ideas around nature, consumption, and class. Editor: That really puts the image into a wider historical and material framework. I now look at the objects with so many extra layers of perspective and context. Thank you. Curator: It’s been a fruitful reflection, helping to reveal art as enmeshed in wider relations of making, looking, and owning.