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Mezzotint
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==History== [[File:Arolsen Klebeband 01 273.jpg|thumb|[[Ludwig von Siegen]], ''[[Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg]]'', 1642, is the first known mezzotint, using the light to dark method.]] The mezzotint printmaking method was invented by the German soldier and amateur artist [[Ludwig von Siegen]] (1609 – {{circa|1680}}). His earliest mezzotint print dates to 1642 and is a portrait of [[Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg]], regent for her son, and von Siegen's employer. This was made by working from light to dark. The rocker seems to have been invented by [[Prince Rupert of the Rhine]], a famous cavalry commander in the [[English Civil War]], who was the next to use the process, and took it to England.<ref>Mayor, 511; Griffiths (1996b), 85</ref> Sir [[Peter Lely]] saw the potential for using it to publicise his portraits, and encouraged a number of Dutch printmakers to come to England. [[Godfrey Kneller]] worked closely with [[John Smith (engraver)|John Smith]], who is said to have lived in his house for a period; he created about 500 mezzotints, some 300 copies of portrait paintings. In the next century over 400 mezzotints after portraits by Sir [[Joshua Reynolds]] are known, by various hands.<ref>Griffiths (1996b), 85-87</ref> British mezzotint collecting was a great craze from about 1760 to the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|Great Crash]] of 1929, also spreading to America. The main area of collecting was British portraits; hit oil paintings from the [[Royal Academy Summer Exhibition]] were routinely, and profitably, reproduced in mezzotint throughout this period, and other mezzotinters reproduced older portraits of historical figures, or if necessary, made them up. The favourite period to collect was roughly from 1750 to 1820, the great period of the British portrait. There were two basic styles of collection: some concentrated on making a complete collection of material within a certain scope, while others aimed at perfect condition and quality (which declines in mezzotints after a relatively small number of impressions are taken from a plate), and in collecting the many "[[State (printmaking)|proof states]]" which artists and printers had obligingly provided for them from early on. Leading collectors included [[William Eaton, 2nd Baron Cheylesmore]] and the Irishman [[John Chaloner Smith]].<ref>Griffiths (1996a), 134–137 and 141–142; Barker</ref> [[File:Frank Short - Ebb Tide, Putney Bridge - 2014.246 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|thumb|left|[[Frank Short]], ''Ebb Tide, [[Putney Bridge]]'', 1885]] In the first half of the 19th century the "mixed" technique was popular in England, with other intaglio techniques, often used to start a plate off, combined with mezzotint.<ref>Griffiths (1996b), 87</ref> Mezzotint was also often used for landscapes, being especially suited to rather gloomy British skies and twilights, that were popular subjects in the Victorian [[Etching Revival]]. [[File:Eternity Terra Contigua 2009.jpg|thumb|[[Shirley_Jones_(artist)|Shirley Jones]], 'Eternity', ''Terra Contigua'' (2009)]] Continental use of the technique was much less; in the late 17th century [[Abraham Bloteling]] was one of a number of Amsterdam printmakers to use it, but in the 18th century only [[Augsburg]] ([[Johann Jacob Haid]] and [[Johann Elias Ridinger]]), [[Nuremberg]] and [[Vienna]] ([[Ignaz Unterberger]]) had schools, led by artists following London styles.<ref>Griffiths (1996b), 87; Barker</ref> During the 20th century the technique went into decline, in great part because it was so time consuming to rock the plates. Rare proponents include [[Yozo Hamaguchi]], [[Leonard Marchant]] and [[Shirley_Jones_(artist)|Shirley Jones]].<ref>[https://archive.org/details/shirley-jones-journey/page/n13/mode/2up Shirley Jones (2019). ''Mezzotint and the Artist's Book: a forty year journey'' (The Red Hen Press), pp. 1-4]</ref> Wider interest in learning and using the technique revived after the publication in 1990 of the book ''The Mezzotint: History and Technique'' by artist [[Carol Wax]]. The Wax book was responsible for a substantial upsurge in the number of artists creating mezzotints in the United States and worldwide.
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