Grisene; Hesten og føllet 1845

Adolph Kittendorff made this print of pigs, a horse, and its foal using etching, a printmaking technique, sometime before 1902. The most important thing to notice here is the line work: Kittendorff would have drawn through a prepared wax ground on a metal plate with a sharp needle, then exposed the plate to acid. The acid bites into the metal where the wax has been removed, creating recessed lines, which hold ink for printing. Look closely, and you can see the etched lines which define the forms of the animals, the wooden fence, and the surrounding foliage. The material qualities of etching—the crispness of the line, the way the ink sits on the paper— lend themselves to the depiction of idyllic pastoral scenes. These kinds of images celebrate rural labor and animal husbandry. We get a sense of the artist's hand, skill, and time taken to produce this artwork. Ultimately, by considering the material, processes, and social context we can understand that prints like these offer a glimpse into the romanticized lives of farm animals, appealing to an emerging urban population that was increasingly disconnected from agricultural life.