Man met kan en pijp bij een vat 1832

"Man met kan en pijp bij een vat" was etched by Philippus Velijn sometime before 1836. The printmaking process itself is front and center here. Look closely, and you'll see the matrix of tiny engraved lines that form the image. Etching like this was a sophisticated process. The plate would have been prepared with a waxy ground, the artist scratching through it to expose the metal, which was then bitten by acid. This painstaking work demanded a high level of skill and patience. But consider the subject matter. The man with his jug and pipe is hardly a heroic figure. Instead, we see a celebration of everyday life, elevated through the craft of printmaking. This piece sits right at the intersection of the so-called fine and decorative arts, asking us to consider the labor involved not just in the making of the image, but also in the making of a life. By attending to the material and the making, we see how these values are intertwined.