« Clearly, etching is becoming fashionable » notes Charles Baudelaire in April 1862, highlighting in an article the growing interest in this spontaneous and direct medium. The discussion develops in artistic and intellectual circles and focuses more on the function of the line, space or atmosphere than on specific subject-matters. Considered as the contemporary and most up-to-date artistic form, etching thus redefines the aesthetic standards of printmaking and introduced new ways of production and distribution.

This phenomenon spreads very quickly, with exceptional works by James McNeill Whistler, Édouard Manet, Félix Bracquemond, Antonio Fontanesi, Edgar Degas, Charles Meryon, Johan Barthold Jongkind, James Ensor, Käthe Kollwitz or Karl Stauffer-Bern.