Knielende jonge vrouw met bloemenkrans 1816 - 1875

This delicate print of a kneeling young woman with a garland of flowers was made by Paulus Lauters in the mid-19th century. The technique used here is etching, a printmaking process in which lines are incised into a metal plate with acid, allowing for finely detailed, reproducible images. Look closely, and you will see that the fineness of the line determines the light and shadow in this artwork. The relatively light, delicate impression speaks to its status as an artwork made for the market, to be acquired and cherished by a collector. In his choice of etching, Lauters was engaging with a well-established tradition dating back to the Renaissance, but he was also participating in the 19th-century’s new world of mass production. This image, at once intimate and reproducible, reminds us that the value and meaning of art is so often bound up in how it is made.