Goat in a Landscape
1805
Medium
etching on wove paper
Dimensions
plate: 26.8 x 20.2 cm (10 9/16 x 7 15/16 in.) sheet: 32 x 24.9 cm (12 5/8 x 9 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Robert A. Hauslohner
Accession Number
1991.116.16
Art Historical Context
Adam von Bartsch’s “Goat in a Landscape,” created in 1805, offers a quiet glimpse of rural life rendered through the precise art of etching. Bartsch, an Austrian printmaker and scholar renowned for his catalogues of graphic works, employed this technique to depict the animal amid a simple natural setting. The result is a modest yet carefully observed scene that reflects the early nineteenth-century appreciation for pastoral subjects. Etching on wove paper allowed Bartsch to achieve fine, expressive lines and subtle tonal effects by using acid to bite into a metal plate. This medium was especi...