Ruth and Boas 1825

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld created this print, Ruth and Boas, using etching, a printmaking technique dependent on acid. The artist would have covered a metal plate with a waxy, acid-resistant ground, then scratched an image into that ground with a needle. The plate was then immersed in acid, which bit into the exposed metal, creating incised lines that hold ink. The longer the plate sits in the acid, the deeper and darker the lines will be. In this work, we can appreciate the fineness of the etched lines, and the labor involved in creating them. Consider also the subject. It depicts a scene of harvesting, which brings to mind the labor of those who worked the fields. The figures stooped over, cutting the grain, highlight the physicality of that process. Schnorr von Carolsfeld’s print, therefore, speaks both to the work of making art, and the work that art depicts. It urges us to consider these two forms of production together.