Paradijsvogel op een tak 1801 - 1806

Jacques Louis Pérée made this print of a bird of paradise, using etching and stipple engraving, sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. The print medium is essential here. These techniques allowed Pérée to describe the bird's plumage with remarkable precision. The etching would have created the outlines and the stipple engraving added tone through countless tiny dots, capturing the subtle gradations of color in the bird’s feathers. The final result imitates a watercolor drawing. What makes this image so evocative is not just the skill of the artist, but the context of its creation. The era of printmaking coincided with a boom in natural history and global exploration. These images were a way for Europeans to catalog the world's wonders. So, as you admire the artistry, consider the economic system that drove its making. Pérée's print represents the global flows of materials, knowledge, and labor that characterized the age of colonialism, blurring the lines between art, science, and commerce.