Portret van Theodore Bleuet 1640

Curator: This engraving, “Portret van Theodore Bleuet,” crafted around 1640 by Theodor Matham, strikes me with its almost startling level of detail given the medium. There’s a tangible weight to the lines, a depth created from pure craft. Editor: Absolutely. And in viewing it, the phrase that comes to mind is ‘establishment portraiture’… Every line seems calibrated to broadcast status and respectability. Can you tell me more about the context surrounding its production? Curator: Well, Matham was a prolific printmaker. We see the subject here depicted with an interesting interplay of line weights suggesting how the production processes informed aesthetic choices... like where and how pressure might have been applied to the copper plate. This portrait is clearly intended to showcase technical prowess. And the text along the bottom definitely frames writing as aspirational… almost transactional, “learn to write to secure your place.” Editor: Right. The very act of commissioning such a formal engraving would signal Bleuet’s position in society, but beyond that, this act ties directly into the burgeoning culture of the early modern state, which was becoming dependent upon records, communication, correspondence and bureaucracy. Theodore Bleuet's upward social mobility was therefore achieved through engagement with text. Curator: I think there is so much we could still say about Matham's deliberate employment of tools and the culture that would have spurred this engraving's existence. And beyond this portrait, his larger body of work offers insights into workshops, the engraver's studio, and networks that brought art and printmaking to a broad audience. Editor: Precisely. And looking closer we begin to see that the print, acting almost as propaganda, upholds a system in which Bleuet gained recognition, but it also reproduces the gendered, and indeed often colonial systems which regulated print in the 17th century. I find it fascinating how much material reality the artwork's reproduction speaks to. Curator: A complex relationship between the medium and the message. Fascinating to consider! Editor: Absolutely. Thank you!