Portret van Justus van Effen 1735 - 1802

Johann Christian Gottfried Fritzsch made this portrait of Justus van Effen, sometime in the 1700s. It's an engraving, made by carefully incising lines into a copper plate with a tool called a burin. The plate would then have been inked and printed onto paper. The magic of this image lies in the contrast between those finely engraved lines and the blank paper. Fritzsch shows us texture and form through a labor-intensive process, the mastery of which was highly valued at the time. Consider how the engraver's craft translates social status: the confident expression, the carefully styled wig, the ornate waistcoat. All these details speak of van Effen's position as a prominent man of letters. And they also reflect the engraver's own skill in capturing these markers of identity. So, next time you look at a print, remember the intricate handwork involved in its creation. It's a reminder that even seemingly simple images have a rich story to tell about materials, making, and the society in which they were produced.