Sloot met roeiboot en half verscholen huis ernaast 1876 - 1910

Alphonse Stengelin made this print using etching, a process rooted in craft traditions, sometime between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The image is conjured through a network of finely incised lines, an aesthetic completely dependent on the etched medium. To make it, Stengelin would have covered a metal plate with a waxy ground, drawn into it with a sharp needle, and then bathed the plate in acid. This eats away at the exposed metal, leaving behind delicate grooves. Ink is then forced into these lines and the plate is pressed onto paper, transferring the image. The solitary figure in the boat and the hidden house suggest a quiet, rural scene, far removed from the industrializing cities of Europe at the time. Yet, the print itself, though artisanal in its making, also participates in a wider economy of images, of art made reproducible and available for consumption. Considering the materials and making of this piece allows us to see it not just as a pretty picture, but as an object deeply entwined with the social and economic forces of its time.