Wandelaars op een pad omgeven door kale bomen 1855 - 1904

This is ‘Wandelaars op een pad omgeven door kale bomen,’ or ‘Wanderers on a Path Surrounded by Bare Trees,’ an etching by Arnoud Schaepkens. Etching is an indirect printmaking technique; the image is bitten into a metal plate with acid, and then the plate is inked and printed. Here, Schaepkens likely covered a copper or zinc plate with a waxy, acid-resistant ground. Using a sharp needle, he’d scratch away lines to expose the metal underneath, then immerse the plate in acid. The longer the plate sat in the acid, the deeper the lines would be etched, allowing for a rich range of tones when printed. Notice the fine details that Schaepkens was able to achieve, describing the bare trees and the figures on the path with sparse and expressive mark-making. This print is no less evocative for its limited scale. By attending to the materiality and labor involved in its production, we can appreciate the skill required to create such a compelling image.