Portret van Joseph Banks 1826

Henri Grevedon's portrait of Joseph Banks is a print, an artwork made by transferring an image from one surface to another, usually paper. The appearance of the work is influenced by the inherent qualities of the printmaking process. The sharp lines and precise details suggest a technique like engraving or etching, where the image is incised into a metal plate and then transferred to paper. Either of those techniques involved a great deal of labor. Printmaking allowed for the reproduction of images on a mass scale, making art more accessible. This had significant social and cultural implications, breaking down traditional barriers between high art and more democratic forms of visual culture. Consider, too, that the man represented here, Joseph Banks, was an important botanist and explorer. He made his name and fortune by extracting resources from faraway lands. Printmaking, like botany, is a practice of extraction. Perhaps this is not incidental, but rather, central to our understanding of this work.