One of the leading French Romantic painters, Eugène Delacroix played a key role in the etching revival in France in the mid-nineteenth century and was a prominent member of the Société des Aquafortistes, or Society of Etchers. The striking tonal contrasts of A Blacksmith were achieved by combining two methods of printmaking: aquatint and drypoint. Delacroix included charming drypoint sketches of a male nude and a bird in the outer margins of the print, in addition to including tests of the aquatint technique.