Portret van Simon van Leeuwen 1712 - 1744

This is Wouter Jongman’s portrait of Simon van Leeuwen, made as an engraving. The incised lines of this print required considerable expertise. With a tool called a burin, Jongman would have slowly displaced slivers of copper to create each mark, building up the image line by line. The material properties of the copper plate have everything to do with the final look. Only a very hard, stable, and smooth surface can take the crisp detail you see here. And that uniform surface allows for many impressions to be taken before the matrix degrades, enabling the wide circulation of images and ideas. Consider the amount of work involved. This wasn’t just a record of Leeuwen’s appearance; prints like these also served as propaganda, reinforcing the sitter's status. Jongman and others like him were part of a skilled labor force, essential to the political and commercial life of the Dutch Republic. So next time you see a print, remember: it's not just an image, it's a record of skilled work and a testament to the power of reproducible media.