Maria von Sundhain schudt de hand van een van de broeders 1791

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki made this tiny print using etching, a printmaking technique, sometime in the 18th century. Look closely, and you’ll notice the etched lines themselves vary in thickness and direction to build up the image. This wasn’t a quick process, but a labor-intensive one, involving careful work with acid to bite into a metal plate. The matrix would then be inked and printed onto paper. In its day, etching was a relatively efficient way to reproduce images. That was important, because prints like this were essentially the mass media of their time. Beyond the technical skill involved, this print also reflects the social context in which it was made. Chodowiecki was active during the Enlightenment, and prints were often used to disseminate ideas and stories to a wider audience. “Maria von Sundhain Shakes the Hand of One of the Brothers” speaks to a growing reading public, hungry for images, but also a society increasingly fascinated by emotional encounters.