The old Church 1900

Theodor Severin Kittelsen made this print using an etching technique. This involves drawing into a waxy ground on a metal plate, then immersing it in acid to bite away the exposed lines. Look closely, and you'll see a wealth of painstaking work, rendered through intricate cross-hatching. The artist has lavished care even on the shadowed areas, building layer upon layer of tiny marks. The resulting image has a palpable atmospheric intensity. Kittelsen trained as an artist and designer, but he was also deeply interested in Norwegian folklore. It's possible to see the printmaking here as a kind of folk process: laborious, intimate, and capable of evoking the numinous. While etching has a long and rich history, the artist has deployed it here to express something primal. The technique itself is a crucial part of how the work conveys its message. By attending to these aspects of making, we can appreciate how Kittelsen's vision transcends conventional art categories, inviting us to consider the cultural and historical resonances embedded in the work.