Woman Feeding Pigs 1850

Charles Jacque made this etching, "Woman Feeding Pigs," using metal, acid, and ink. This wasn't an intuitive, gestural drawing, but an indirect approach that could generate many identical images. The etched line gives the image a particular quality, almost like handwriting. See how the texture of the thatch roof is rendered with layers of tiny marks, as are the bodies of the animals, and the worn surface of the feeding trough. Each line had to be carefully considered, bitten into the metal with acid, then printed. In 19th-century France, there was a growing market for such images, as the middle class developed an interest in collecting art. Prints like this one helped to satisfy that demand, turning the act of image-making into a small-scale industry. The image offers a romantic vision of rural life, but the method of its making tells another story, about the rise of capitalism and the changing nature of art itself.