The Printmaking of Anna Folkema

The Dutch artist etching a name for herself in 18th-century Amsterdam

Print-making was the art technique du jour during the Dutch Golden Age. It was a method that meant images could be produced on a far greater scale than that of a painting, and circulated far more widely. Prints became popular among collectors, as artists like Albert Dürer, Rembrandt and Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade created their own original designs and paved the way for the trend.

Engraving was the most widespread method of making prints during the 1500s as it was a suitable way to mass produce reproductions of paintings. Engraving involved a design being scratched into the surface of a metal plate, which was then used to make inky impressions on paper with a high-pressure printing press. However, soon etching became more favored as with this technique, designs were drawn onto a waxy layer on the metal plate and then chemicals were used to burn the design into the exposed metal. It was easier to learn than engraving, as it didn't require special skills in metalworking. The durability of the etching plates and their popularity led to the profession becoming highly in demand.

It is no surprise then, that despite the artistic field being largely dominated by men, Anna Folkema decided to follow in the footsteps of her father, Johannes Jacobsz, an engraver and gold and silversmith. Anne was born in 1695 at the latter end of the Dutch Golden Age when print-making was already a well-established pursuit. Around 1708 the Folkemas moved to Amsterdam where later her, as well as her brother and sister, she decided to stay in the family trade and go on to work as engravers. They were most likely trained by their father and it is thought that the siblings shared a workshop on the Westermarkt, where the family had settled.

Anna found work on numerous projects. Her earliest-known etchings are caricatures she created for Il Callotto resuscitato or Neu eingerichtes Zwerchen Cabinet, a compilation published in 1716. She was also known for a series of etchings she produced of well-known buildings around Amsterdam, for an album called Waerelds koopslot of de Amsteldamse beurs (Waereld's lock or the Amsterdam fair ), which were later reused in another publication called Gebouwen, gezichten en oudheden der stad Amsterdam (Buildings, sights and antiquities of the city of Amsterdam).