Trekpaard met haverzak 1900

Pieter Dupont made this etching of a working horse, probably in the late 19th century. The image is created by incising lines into a metal plate, inking it, and then running it through a press to transfer the image onto paper. The close hatching and attention to detail gives a sense of the labor that goes into both the making of the print, and the work of the horse itself. You can almost feel the weight of the animal, the texture of its coat, the solid materiality of the harness. It makes you think about the relationship between humans and animals, and how both are sometimes reduced to units of labor within an economic system. Etching is traditionally considered a ‘fine art’ medium, but here Dupont uses it to draw attention to this toiling animal. In doing so, he blurs the boundaries between art and social commentary.