New Year's Day Morning 1865

Charles Jacque made this print, 'New Year's Day Morning', using etching, a printmaking technique that employs acid to cut into a metal plate, which is then inked and pressed onto paper. The image is made up of lines, and it is the quality and density of those lines that create the image. Jacque was part of the Barbizon School of painters, who favored a naturalistic approach, focusing on the rural landscape and peasant life. The scene here depicts a family loading up a donkey cart with what appear to be potatoes, a humble and hardworking image that idealizes country living. The amount of labor involved in farming is evident. Every potato represents manual labor. By using etching, a process that can produce multiple copies, Jacque makes this idealized version of rural life accessible to a wider audience. In doing so, he elevates the status of the peasant class, making it clear that their way of life, and by extension, the crafts that sustain it, are worthy of our attention.