Gezicht op de Keizersgracht te Amsterdam met de ingang van de schouwburg 1737 - 1797

Benedikt Winkler created this print of the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam sometime in the 18th century. It's made using a technique called etching, where lines are incised into a metal plate, which is then inked and printed onto paper. Afterwards, a watercolor wash was applied. Consider the labor involved: the skilled hand of the etcher precisely rendering the scene, the careful application of color, and the layers of social context embedded in the image itself. This wasn’t a quick snapshot but a carefully constructed view of urban life. You can see the theatre at the end of the street, a place of leisure for the wealthy. The people promenading are dressed in their finest clothes, a world apart from the workers whose labor underpinned Amsterdam’s prosperity. The print itself, multiplied and distributed, becomes part of the circulation of images that fueled the city’s economy. Looking at this print, we're not just seeing a pretty picture, we're engaging with a complex network of materials, labor, and social relations. It is an artifact as well as an artwork.