Interieur met feestend gezelschap 1832 - 1897

This is *Interior with a Celebrating Crowd*, made by Alexander Ver Huell. It’s an etching on paper, a printmaking process dependent on the division of labor. The artist would have coated a metal plate with wax, and then scratched an image into this resist with a sharp tool. It would then have been immersed in acid, which bit away the exposed lines. This is skilled work, requiring control and expertise. But once the plate was prepared, it could be printed many times, potentially by less skilled, lower paid printers, with each impression being exactly the same. The relative ease of this reproductive method is critical to understanding the image. It depicts a festive crowd, a jumble of bodies pressed together. The etching process, with its fine lines and replication, is a fitting medium for this scene of mass culture, creating a democratization not only of labor, but of representation too. The material and the social context are inextricably linked.