Untitled c. 19th century

Editor: This is an untitled engraving by Joseph Andrews, from the Harvard Art Museums. It shows a man resting by his horse-drawn cart. What strikes me is the detail of the etching and the contrast between the man's idle pose and the tools of labor at his feet. What do you make of it? Curator: Consider the process. Engraving, a reproductive technique, democratized images. Andrews, active during industrialization, used this method. Who consumed these images? What kind of labor is depicted, and how is it romanticized or critiqued through the artistic medium itself? Editor: That's interesting, the idea of mass production influencing the subject matter itself. Curator: Precisely. We can understand so much more by looking at the means of production and distribution, rather than just the surface image.