Staande man met pijp 1886

Paul Rink made this print of a standing man with a pipe using etching, a printmaking technique, sometime in the late nineteenth century. To create this image, Rink would have covered a metal plate with a waxy, acid-resistant ground, and then scratched an image into the ground with a needle. The plate was then immersed in acid, which bit into the exposed metal, creating lines. After removing the ground, the plate was inked, and then wiped clean, leaving ink only in the etched lines. Finally, the plate was pressed onto paper, transferring the image. The resulting print has a delicate, linear quality, which describes the figure with careful detail. Rink skillfully uses the etching process to capture the texture of the man’s coat, the rough surface of the wall behind him, and even the smoke curling from his pipe. Consider how the print-making process itself affects the image; the figure is not just represented, but also produced through labor and material. By attending to these aspects, we gain a richer understanding of Rink's artistic practice and the world he inhabited.