Weidelandschap met een beek before 1899

Carl Winkel made this landscape with a brook by using the photogravure printmaking process. This involves etching a photographic image into a copper plate and then using it to make prints. Notice the tonal range Winkel achieved, from the dark, velvety shadows of the trees to the soft, hazy sky. This was created by the painstaking process of preparing the copper plate, coating it with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue, exposing it to a negative of the photograph, and then etching it in a series of acid baths. The photogravure process was labor-intensive, requiring specialized skills and equipment, and was therefore often associated with high art. Winkel was clearly engaged with traditions of landscape painting, but also with the rise of photography as a means of capturing and disseminating images of the world. By combining the mechanical process of photography with the handcraft of etching and printing, Winkel challenges the boundaries between art and craft, revealing the artistic potential of industrial processes.