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Printmaking As An Original Art

	Original International Fine Art www.artoftheprint.com
Aloys Senefelder, Inventor of Lithography by John Gendall	Art of The Print - Printmaking As An Original Art	Halloween by Adam Wurtz
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Art of The Print / www.artoftheprint.com - Printmaking As An Original Art: This summary is intended to acquaint the reader with the basic processes of printmaking as used both in the past and present. The concluding information will deal with some of the more frequent problems nagging the modern collector.

Some of the greatest and most valuable images in the history of world art stem from printmaking. Yes, such widespread confusion presently exists as to what exactly constitutes an original work of graphic art that people are all too often convinced into purchasing copies and reproductions at ridiculous prices.

Briefly, a print is a multiple image which has been transferred to a surface from a matrix, such as a plate, wood block, stone, glass or screen. The most common belief is that a print is a reproduction of a painting for sale at the museum shops. It is important to observe that an artistic print is an original work of art when the artist deliberately selects one or more of the processes outlined below to create his image. The artistic act of creativity is bonded to the medium. Original prints are often referred to by the printing technique that was used to produce them: Etching, woodcut, lithograph, silk-screen, mezzotint, aquatint and many other wonderful mediums of graphic art.

Art of the Print (http://www.artoftheprint.com) offers a wide selection of international fine art. We sell original etchings, lithographs, watercolors, paintings, drawings or other mediums of original graphic art from the Renaissance period to contemporary art. We guarantee the authenticity of every work of art 100%. Full documentation and certification is provided. We also provide an www.artoftheprint.com (Artist Biography Index) and a www.artoftheprint.com (Publisher History Index) for the benefit of our viewers.

Our collection features works by artists from many countries such as the French artists, Pierre Bonnard, Odilon Redon, and Othon Friesz or the more modern American artists such as Jon Corbino, Louise Nevelson, Raphael Soyer and Federico Castellon, the Japanese artists, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi and Yoshitoshi, the Satirical artists, Francisco Goya, George Cruikshank William Hogarth and many others. These are only a few of the artists featured on this site

We provide search links to different Categories ranging from old master engravings and original fine art to speciality collecting such as animals, botanicals, genre, maps, military art, posters and advertising, satirical art, sports and many other interests. You can also link to pages focused on the century you prefer or by the artists' nationalities. You may wish to visit our www.artoftheprint.com (Featured Artist Biography) pages.

01.- The Original Woodcut: Example A	01.- The Original Woodcut: Example B	01.- The Original Woodcut: Example C
View an original woodcut by the Renaissance Masters Tobias Stimmer & Christoph Murer.	View an original 19th century woodcut by Japanese artist, Hokusai.	View an original woodcut by the 20th century Dutch artist, Jan Wiegers.

Woodcut: This is the oldest of the graphic arts. In Europe, anonymous masters created original woodcuts as early as 1400 A.D. In the woodcut, the artist works on a plank of soft wood (usually pine) and cuts along the grain. After drawing his image on the wood he cuts away at those parts of his design which are not to be printed with a sharp knife or gouge.

At this point the design has been sculpted out in relief, rather like type. The surface of the block is then inked, covered with a sheet of paper and pressed. The inked design is therefore transferred to the paper and the resulting print is called a woodcut.

The woodcut reached its height in Germany during the Renaissance and the names of Albrect Durer, Altdorfer, Graf and Cranach stand as its greatest early masters.

After 1550 other more exacting graphic techniques began to surpass this process and the woodcut came to be looked upon as the poor man's print. It wasn't until nearly the beginning of our century that artists began to rediscover the unique qualities of this medium, propelling it once again to the forefront. The great modern masters of the woodcut are Gaugin, Munch, and the German Expressionists. In Japan, the colour woodcut has always reigned supreme.

2. The Wood Engraving: View an orignal wood engraving by Lynd Ward.

Wood Engraving: This is an important variation of the woodcut, invented in the late eighteenth century. Original wood engraving is done with the cut end of the wood, as opposed to the plank side. The wood employed is always a hard wood, usually boxwood. A burin or graver is used to cut much finer lines than is possible with the woodcut. Thomas Bewick was the first great exponent of his medium and remains one of its masters.

During the 19th Century wood engraving was an art practiced throughout the world for illustrating books and periodicals. Unlike other processes, the thin and strong wood engraving blocks could be printed under high pressure with type press. This adaptation led to the birth of publications such as the Illustrated London News, The Graphic, and others.

During the early decades of our century, relief methods on wood again came to the forefront. Expressionist artists, particularly in Germany, found that the lines produced by the woodcut perfectly suited their needs. At the same time, wood engraving flourished in England, America and elsewhere. No longer tied to commercial periodicals, wood engraving became the favoured vehicle for artists and the illustrated book of the 1920s.

3. The Linocut: View an original linocut by Leon Gordon Miller.

Linocut: A 20th Century variation, linoleum is used in the same manner as a woodcut plank. Its advantage is its softness. Without any grain, linoleum is easy to cut in any direction. Picasso is perhaps the modern master of this process. A number of well known artists in both Europe and North America also made fine linocuts.

The methods grouped under this important category have in common the incision of lines or cuts into a metal surface. Intaglio prints result when the incised areas are filled with ink for the transfer of the image to paper. Whereas the relief processes rely on a raised surface, the printing areas in intaglio methods are depressed below the surface of the metal plate. When printing, a uniform indentation occurs to the image within the paper, due to high pressure. This is called plate-mark.

1. The Engraving: View an original engraving by William Blake.

Engraving: In This founding intaglio technique the print is created by cutting into the polished surface of the plate with a burin or other engraving tool. Surrounding the cut lines, a raised burr, like the ploughed furrows in a field, are created. As the aim of engraving is clarity of line, the burr is removed with a scraper.

The masters of engraving came from 16th and 17th Century Italy, Germany and other European centres and created some of the most enduring original prints in the history of art. Schongauer, Durer, Raimondi, Mantegna, Lucas Van Leyden and Hendrik Goltzius are just a few.

2. The Drypoint: View an original drypoint engraving by Albert Sterner.

Drypoint: Often Used in conjunction with engraving or etching, lines are scratched or gouged onto the plate with a diamond point or other tool. The raised burr is quite pronounced and is not eliminated when printing. Thick, velvety lines result. The drypoint will break down after as few as ten to fifteen impressions.

3. The Mezzotint: View an original mezzotint by Isaac Beckett and John Smith.

Mezzotint: Practiced mostly in the 18th Century, Mezzotinting is a purely tonal method. A uniformly dark base is created on the plate by using an instrument with cutting teeth, called a rocker. When moved across the plate, the rocker creates millions of tiny holes. If printed at this point the image would be an overall deep tone of black.

Using a scraper, the mezzotint artist removes the burr and burnishes the plate in areas in which he desires lighter tones. The more he scrapes, the lighter the area will print. Light and shade, not line, creates the image.

Mezzotinting reached its peak of popularity in England during the 18th and 19th centuries. Artists such as Valentine Green and Richard Earlom became famous for their mezzotints after the designs of Gainsborough, Reynolds and others. Although not frequently used since then, Sir Frank Short continued the tradition into our century.

4. The Etching: View an original etching by Thomas Moran.

Etching: First employed in the early 16th Century, etched lines are not cut with a burin but are bitten or etched with acid. Briefly, this complicated method involves laying grounds or coverings over the copper plate. By drawing with a needle, the artist lays bare the lines to be etched. When bathed, the acid attacks only the exposed lines. The Darkness or depth of the etched line depends upon the length of time the plate is bitten in the acid.

This tremendously skillful process allows the artist an enormous arsenal of options. For instance, various lines can be stopped out at any point leaving others to be further bitten.

The greatest master of etching is of course Rembrandt. An entire volume of splendid etchers followed in his footsteps, including Whistler and Meryon.

5. The Aquatint: View an original aquatint by Malcolm Osborne.

Aquatint: Instead of covering the plate with a solid ground, as in etching, an aquatinter uses a porous ground or series of grounds such as sand or resin. This permits the acid to create granular, tonal areas on the plate. Invented in the late 18th Century, aquatint is often combined with etching. Goya is its greatest master.

6. The Stipple Engraving: View an original stipple engraving by John Ogborne.

Stipple Engraving: Rather than etching lines, the design is constructed by applying a multitude of dots or flicks. The method was particularly appropriate for building flesh tones. Bartolozzi and other late 18th Century printmakers employed stippling for their decorative works. A laborious process, it was virtually abandoned in the early 19th Century.

7. The Steel Engraving: View an original steel engraving published by Costume Parisien, Paris.

Steel Engraving: Invented in the early 19th Century, Steel engravings utilized plates of harder metal than the traditional copper plate. This method was preferred for designs intended for large editions as the plate was capable of producing sometimes more than one thousand clear impressions. Picturesque views and fashion plates, often appearing in portfolios and journals, were often engraved upon steel. Hand colouring these plates was quite common.

8. The Mixed Method Engraving: View an original mixed method engraving by Arthur Turrell.

Mixed Method Engraving: Quite simply, any intaglio print which combines two or more methods falls under the category of the mixed method engraving. . Engravers of large Victorian prints performed technical gymnastics, often combining engraving, etching, mezzotint and aquatint on the same plate. This term is most commonly applied to those mid-nineteenth century engravers.

1. The Lithograph: View a set of original lithographs (Proof Impressions), by Joseph Christian Leyendecker.

Lithograph: Lithography was discovered by accident in 1798. The principle of this surface method is based on the antipathy of grease and water. The most autographic method, the artist draws his image with a greasy chalk on the grained surface of a heavy slab of limestone. The stone is then moistened. Wherever there is grease the water is repelled. A greasy ink is rolled over the stone's surface. Where there is a greasy mark or line the grease on the roller is attracted: Where the stone is damp and clean, the grease is repelled. Paper is then placed on the stone and run through a lithographic press, producing a duplicate of the surface drawing.

The most painterly of methods, lithography became a favorite among most of the great artists of the 19th and 20th Centuries, particularly in France. Delacroix, Gericault, Daumier and Derain were but a few of the great French lithographers.

2. The Chromolithograph: View an original chromolithograph published by Raphael Tuck & Sons.

The Chromolithograph: This term includes all types of lithography printed in colour. Chromolithography was invented in Germany during the mid 1830's. By using a series of carefully registered stones, a chromolithograph requires an individual printing for every colour required. Some of the more complicated examples ran to more than thirty printings.

During the nineteenth century, chromolithography was used for everything from advertising to fine art. The most famous examples are the large art nouveau posters of Lautrec, Grasset, Berthon and others.

The Serigraphy or The Silk-Screen: View an original silk-screen by Harry Gottlieb.

Serigraphy or The Silk-Screen: The most recent graphic process, the silk-screen came into its own as a fine art form during the 1930's. A variation of stenciling, fabric stretched tightly across a rigid frame becomes the support for the stencil. A stencil is constructed by painting a substance such as glue onto the fabric. One controls the areas that print by controlling the parts of the screen that remain open to the free passage of ink. The use of multiple screens makes this an admirable method for colour printmaking.

Such diverse modern artists as Lichtenstein, A. J. Casson and Andy Warhol have successfully employed this medium.

The Monotype or Monoprint: View an original monotype by Yasuhide Kobashi.

Monotype or Monoprint: First used by Castiglione in the 17th Century, the monotype lays a claim to both printmaking and painting. The method produces only a single impression by using pressure to transfer an image painted on one surface (usually glass) to another (usually paper). Degas is considered by many to be the master of this technique. Altogether he created over one hundred monotypes.

Impressions and States

Some plates have been printed and reprinted over the course of centuries. 19th and early 20th Century impressions have been taken from a good many 16th and 17th Century plates. These late printings, while still original works of art, do not carry either the artistic or economic value of the initial printings. One can, for example, determine the value of a Rembrandt etching by its printed date, and this is discerned by the clarity of the impression. Intaglio and relief methods of printmaking will show wear through repeated printings. In some cases, the late impression will only be a ghost-like relation to the early printing. The difference in value may be as great as $ 50,000.00 to $500.00.

During the course of an artist's life, he would sometimes alter the image on a finished plate that had previously been printed. This could be with the addition or elimination of a minor line, or by drastic changes to the entire image. Rembrandt often introduced new characters or reconstructed major buildings before taking further impressions.

Any deliberate alteration by the artist constitutes a new state. Some etchings and engravings have passed through as many as twenty states. A late or posthuminous impression will always be the final state. Catalogue raisonnes exist on all famous printmakers and the collector is urged to thoroughly investigate these sources before making a major purchase.

Fakes, Forgeries and Photomechanical Copies

Prints by master artists command large sums of money. For centuries forgers have been as active in this field as in painting. Usually a forgery contains a mistake which can be rooted out with the catalogue raisonne.

A more common pitfall is the photomechanical copy. During the late 19th Century a process was invented whereby an image could be photographically engraved on a plate. This creates a mirror image of the original work and is on occasion so well reproduced that the only means of detection lies in finding the characteristic network pattern of microscopic dots produced on the paper by photography. A reliable magnifying glass is the essential tool of the collector.

Limited Editions and Signed Prints

Before 1860, artists would sign a completed work in the plate or on the block or stone. The idea of actually signing a particular impression in pencil and creating and numbering a set edition didn't really catch fire until about 1910.

In general, signed impressions of 20th Century prints are worth more than unsigned impressions, unless that print wasn't signed at all, as is the case with some of the works which were commissioned by art journals. Of course, forgers are as adept at signatures as they are at reproducing designs.

Signed and Limited Reproductions

Such great painters as Raphael and Rubens actively influenced the graphic arts without becoming printmakers. Rather, they entrusted their compositions to highly skilled engravers. These engravers made their living by interpreting the drawings or paintings of their masters. The relation that existed, for instance, between Raphael (the painter) and Marco Antonio Raymond (the engraver) was perfectly harmonious. Each was a master in his medium. Marco Antonio's genius was his ability to translate the nuances of Raphael into engraving. When viewed as an analogy to music one can state that the artistry of a fine reproductive engraver is akin to a master conductor bringing to life the score of a composer. Both are viewed as artists in their own right.

As stated at the beginning, a print is an original work of art when the artist deliberately selects a graphic method to creatively portray his image. In our day the art market is glutted with signed and numbered reproductions of paintings or watercolours which are photographically printed from lithographic stones or via the 'Giclee' print. Is the "artist" making these things? Where is the original act of creativity in a photographic reproduction of a painting or a watercolour?

The answers are painfully obvious. These are not original works of art but mere photographs of art, a bit better done than a backyard snapshot but still belonging to the same family. In many cases, unfortunate individuals have squandered more than a thousand dollars on some enterprising painters autograph.

The market for these unfortunate reproductions is kept artificially afloat by both the public's lack of awareness and by an immense amount of sales hype, complete with useless certificates. No amount of sales talk, however, can conceal the fact that these items have never and will never appear in the international catalogues of Sotheby's and Christies' where any original artwork is listed.

Prints generally follow the same monetary rules as paintings watercolours, drawings and sculptures. The value of the piece is determined by the importance of the artist, the condition, the state of the work, its rarity and whether or not it represents a good example the artist's work.

The following factors are important to consider when evaluating art:

Then, and only then, can you establish the true value for a work of art.

Art of the Print is dedicated to the history of art and knowledge. Good luck with your endeavour! We do hope this will help you.

Determining Values: As mentioned earlier, prints generally follow the same monetary rules as paintings and sculpture. The value of the piece is determined by the importance of the artist, the condition and state of the work, its rarity and whether or not it represents a good or poor example of what the artist was capable of creating.

One of the most common methods of determining values is consulting auction records. While of use, auction records are often full of pitfalls and should be regarded with the knowledge that many factors influence the actual selling price. It only takes two enthusiastic but ill informed bidders to pay far too much for a work of art at auction, especially when the item has been misrepresented and the over zealous bidders think it's a bargain. At the other end, low prices could occur simply because a snow storm took place on the night of the auction, or the auctioneer did not describe the item properly. One should also not rule out the possibility that when a work of art falls far below its expected price it might be because it is in poor condition or (even worse) is an outright fake or forgery.

For centuries auctions have been the ideal institution for selling superb works of art, and international auction houses like 'Sotheby's and Christies' do their best to authenticate the items they sell. However this is not the standard for all auctions and regrettably, for some buyers, questionable items have been known to surface far too often. Most auction houses provide the seller with complete anonymity and (if you read the fine lines of their legal disclaimers) the onus is placed solely on the buyer to prove the work he or she purchased from them is not as stated. In today's market many knowledgeable people feel that with the growth of on line sites, these inaccuracies and misrepresentations have increased dramatically.

Price listings from auctions and dealers thus provide only part of the answer. There is no 'little black book' containing prices. In the end no substitute will be found for experience and extensive research.

If you would like an official appraisal or want to know how much your work of art is worth or what it is, we recommend that you contact a certified art appraiser or reputable galleries that provide these services. Don't forget to view the "Guide to Evaluating Works of art". It is a useful tool that will help you understand the rules to evaluating a work of art.

Art of the Print / www.artoftheprint.com sells international fine art. Our collection consists of original paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints, such as etchings, line engravings, lithographs, aquatints, mezzotints, woodcuts, wood engravings, silk-screens, monoprints, monotypes and other mediums of original art. All of these works of art have been created by prominent and established artists, (painters, illustrators, and printmakers). Their nationalities vary from American to British, Canadian, Czechoslovakian, Dutch, Flemish, French, German, Italian, Mexican, Austrian, Belgium, Israeli, Danish, and Japanese, as well as artists from other countries. The collected works span from the early Renaissance period to the modern and contemporary art period. You can find categories ranging from original fine art to speciality collecting such as animal art, botanical art, genre, portraits, maps, military art, lithographic posters and advertising art, satirical art, sports art and many other areas of interest.

The artist biographies, research and or information pertaining to all the original works of art posted on our pages has been written and designed by Greg & Connie Peters exclusively for our site, (www.artoftheprint.com). Please visit us regularly to view the latest artworks offered for sale. We will soon be posting an update of our most recent research and include the biographical and historical information pertaining to our next collection of original works of art created by artists throughout the centuries. We hope you found the information you were looking for and that it has been beneficial.

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