Man seated smoking 1640 - 1670

Jacques Dassonville created this print, "Man Seated Smoking," sometime before 1675. It's a tiny thing, just a few inches across, made using the etching technique. Note how Dassonville, rather than using traditional drawing materials, employed a metal plate, acid, and fine tools to create this image. This process gives the image a distinctive, almost gritty texture, with closely hatched lines building up the forms. This wasn’t just about making an aesthetically pleasing picture. Etching was a reproductive technology. Prints like these were relatively inexpensive, and circulated widely, thus it was a means of disseminating images to a broad audience, reflecting the rise of visual culture alongside a growing economy. Consider how the detailed rendering of the man's clothing, tools, and surroundings invites us to consider the labor and everyday lives of ordinary people. It prompts us to think about the intersection of art, craft, and the social realities of 17th-century life.