Gezicht op de buitenplaats Vrederust aan de Vecht in Vreeland 1790

Daniël Stopendaal made this print of the Vrederust estate in Vreeland sometime around the turn of the 18th century, using the technique of etching. The image is created by coating a metal plate with a waxy substance, drawing through it with a needle, and then bathing the plate in acid. This process leaves an image incised on the metal. Ink is then applied, and the plate is pressed onto paper. This was, at the time, a relatively recent method for creating images, and radically changed the business of picture-making. Printmaking allowed for images to be circulated widely and cheaply, which was essential to emerging capitalist markets in the Netherlands. Consider how the crisp, precise lines of the etching are so well-suited to the subject of the print: a carefully cultivated landscape, complete with elegant buildings and leisurely figures. The etching mirrors and reinforces the sense of control and order that the wealthy landowners sought to impose on the natural world. In this way, the material and the making of the print are inseparable from the social context it depicts.