Fotoreproductie van een schilderij van een paard door Frank Paton before 1893

This is a photogravure of a Frank Paton horse painting, reproduced in a book of unknown date by an anonymous hand. Photogravure is an intaglio printmaking process, a labor-intensive technique involving etching a photographic image onto a copper plate, and then transferring that image to paper. The tonal range is what makes photogravure so distinctive; from rich blacks to delicate greys, achieved by careful control of the etching and inking processes. Unlike mass-produced printing methods, each photogravure print possesses a subtle variation, a unique quality imparted by the hand of the printer. The image is crisp, but its original context is what fascinates me most. Bound between the covers of a book, it becomes a commodity. The photogravure process allows for a relatively faithful reproduction, democratizing access to Paton’s original artwork and embedding it within a wider culture of equine appreciation and industry. The presence of tables of data on the facing page gives the image a very different feel than one would expect from a painting: it is evidence, information, and a tool. It underscores the power of reproductive technologies to transform the meaning and accessibility of art.