Portret van een jongen 1824 - 1864

This is "Portret van een jongen" by Huib van Hove Bz, made using etching. Copper, the metal typically used in this process, has a warm, reddish tone, which would have been apparent before the application of ink. The image is made by incising lines into a prepared metal plate, and then applying ink to the recessed areas. The pressure of the printing press forces the paper into these lines, picking up the ink. The resulting image has a slight relief, a physical presence. Look closely, and you can see the dense field of tiny marks. Van Hove would have painstakingly created this intricate network of lines to render the boy's face, and the background that surrounds him. The etcher’s skill lies not only in the drawing, but also in the manipulation of the metal itself, and the inking process. Etchings like this one remind us that all images are, at root, material things, made by hand.