Landschap met een Japans paar 1728

This print, "Landschap met een Japans paar," was made by Jan Caspar Philips in the 18th century using etching. This process involves coating a metal plate with wax, scratching a design into the wax, and then immersing the plate in acid, which bites away the exposed metal. Look closely, and you can see that the image is composed of thousands of tiny lines. The artist must have been very skilled to create such a detailed landscape using only this method. The figures of the Japanese couple appear delicate. This contrasts sharply with the labor-intensive printing process. The choice of etching, rather than painting, allowed Philips to create multiple copies of this image. It also allowed for this image to be circulated widely, contributing to the 18th-century fascination with the "exotic" East, which helped drive the demand for luxury goods imported from Japan. In the end, this unassuming print shows us how art, craft, and commerce were all intertwined.