Chinese Children Playing with a Parrot 1700 - 1770

This etching, “Chinese Children Playing with a Parrot,” was made by Louis Antoine Crozat in Paris, sometime in the mid-18th century. Crozat employed a process that requires a prepared metal plate, acid, and considerable skill. Look closely, and you can see how he built up the image using thousands of tiny, precise lines. These lines hold ink, transferring the image to paper. The artist would have manipulated the corrosive properties of acid to selectively bite into the metal, deepening some lines and leaving others faint. The result is a delicate interplay of light and shadow. The subject of the image, of course, is an example of Chinoiserie - a European fantasy of the exotic East. But don’t let the lighthearted scene fool you. Printmaking in this period was a key technology in the rise of global trade and the dissemination of images, driving consumption and shaping perceptions of faraway lands and peoples. By considering the labor and the circulation of printed images, we can appreciate how deeply intertwined art is with wider social and economic forces.