Staande naakte vrouw en zittende naakte man 1894

Henri de Groux made this print, "Standing Nude Woman and Seated Nude Man," using etching, a printmaking process with a rich, and sometimes troubled, history. The image begins with a metal plate, usually copper or zinc. The artist coats it with a waxy, acid-resistant substance and then scratches an image into this ground, exposing the metal beneath. Dipping the plate in acid eats away at these exposed lines, creating grooves. The deeper the bite, the more ink it will hold. Printing is straightforward: the plate is inked, wiped clean, and pressed against paper, transferring the image. But beneath this simple process lies a complex social history. Etching emerged alongside the rise of industrial capitalism, offering a means for artists to reproduce images widely and cheaply, potentially democratizing art. But the process also demanded skilled labor, the kind that risked being devalued in a machine age. So, looking at "Standing Nude Woman and Seated Nude Man," consider the tension between the image's content and the means of its production. The very act of etching becomes a statement, a way of negotiating between handcraft and industrialization.