Merløse kirke 1854

Jacob Kornerup made this print of Merløse Church sometime in the late nineteenth century, using etching on paper. The texture of the print is delicate, a result of the way the etching process works. Kornerup would have coated a metal plate with a waxy substance, drawn his image into that coating, and then submerged the plate in acid. The acid bites into the exposed lines, creating grooves. After the plate is inked, these grooves hold the ink, which is then transferred to the paper under high pressure in a printing press. The image shows a picturesque village church. This print belongs to a tradition of landscape etching, a technique that allowed for the relatively easy reproduction of images, thus meeting a growing demand for views among the rising middle class. The very existence of this work speaks to a changing social landscape, where art became more accessible through industrialized processes.