Zicht op kasteel van Chantilly aan het kanaal 1765 - 1830

Marie Alexandre Duparc made this print of the Château de Chantilly around the turn of the 19th century using etching and engraving on laid paper. The linear quality of the image results directly from these processes. The artist would have first coated the metal plate with a waxy ground, then scratched through it with a needle to expose the metal. Immersing the plate in acid would then bite away the exposed lines, allowing for the image to be inked and printed. Engraving, meanwhile, involves directly incising lines into the plate with a tool called a burin. The print medium was crucial to disseminating views like this widely – souvenirs of the Grand Tour, popular among wealthy Europeans. But consider the labor involved. While the original Chateau was for the elite, making reproductive prints like this employed many skilled artisans, and made the view available to a much wider public, caught in the gears of an emerging tourist economy. Appreciating this print, therefore, involves understanding the social and economic context in which it was made, and questioning traditional distinctions between fine art and craft.