Colour-Printed
Intaglio Prints
Unlike
in relief prints, there was no early tradition
of colour in intaglio prints. From the
outset line engravings and etchings were
printed in black ink onto white paper and
found their expression in the quality of
line and silvery or dark tones inherent
in the technique.
Printing
with coloured inks was not thought of until
the 18th century and then it was used only
in the more suitable newly invented tone
processes of mezzotint, pastel-engraving,
stipple and aquatint.
European
artists and professional printmakers, if
interested in making colour-prints, from
the earliest examples in the 18th century,
have wanted the colour to be an intrinsic
printed element and hence whether the technique
was mezzotint or aquatint it was known
as engraving in colours, a separate plate
usually being engraved for each colour.
J
C Le Blon (1667-1741), a German of French
extraction, first devised intaglio colour
printing from multiple plates. On the basis
of Newton’s colour theory Le Blon
made full colour prints from three superimposed
mezzotint plates
respectively printed in the primary colours
of blue, red and yellow. Examples are very
rarely found of his prints today as none
of his business ventures was a success.
He died in poverty in Paris. On his death
his French patent was taken up by a pupil,
Jacques Gautier Dagoty (see right for
illustration),
who perfected his process by adding a fourth
mezzotint plate printed in black (the identical
principle to today’s commercial lithographic
four-colour half-tones for colour printing
magazines etc).
Nicolas
François Regnault (1746–c1810):
"Le Bain".
Four-colour aquatint after
Pierre-Antoine Baudoin, c1780-86.
Printed
from four plates in red, blue, yellow
and black inks. (198 x 130 mm)
The
same four-colour plate system was also
employed by the French colour aquatint
engravers later in the century, Janinet,
Descourtis, Alix &c. The colours had
to be transparent enough to show through
one another and were ground with nut or
poppy oil. Prussian blue, yellow ochre,
red lake mixed with carmine, and black
were the four colours generally used. The
plates were registered to assure accurate
superimposition of the separate colours,
generally by means of two small holes at
the top and bottom of the plate. Each complete
print had to be passed through the press
four times.
The
short-lived crayon and
the related pastel engraving
devised by Louis Bonnet also employed multiple
plates but not in quite the same way. Being
essentially linear rather than pure tone
processes, they did not lend themselves
to four colour printing. Crayon engravings
were printed in black, sanguine and sometimes
white, in imitation of chalk drawings (see
above right). Pastel engravings employed
a large number of plates, up to a dozen,
each printed in a different coloured ink,
replicating the pastel artist building
up his drawing with different coloured
pastels (see right).
 |
|
Detail
of the child's head from a late
18th century English colour stipple
engraving. (Click on detail
for enlargement to the full image.)
Printed
from a single plate inked up à la
poupée with blue, red, yellow,
green, brown, grey and black inks,
in a single passing through the press. |
In
England in the later 18th century the approach
to colour printing was different. Both
mezzotints and stipple engravings were
printed in multiple colours from a single
engraved plate. The different coloured
inks in a wide range of ready-mixed tints
were applied to different areas of the
same plate as called for by the design
and printed simultaneously in one passing
through the press. The inks were dabbed
onto the plate with little twists of cloth
like miniature rag dolls and the process
is known by the French term
as printing à la poupée (“with
the dolly”). The engraved plate is
the complete image, identical whether the
resulting print is monochrome or coloured;
the colouring is the work of the printer,
not the engraver. (Compare the detail
above – click for the full image – with
the black and white detail shown in the Contents listing
on the Intaglio Introductory page. ).
In
the mid-18th century impressions from worn-out
genre mezzotint plates, which printed only
as a pale tired grey, were given life by
being coloured over with opaque body colours.
Later in the century topographical ‘perspective’ or ‘optical’ prints
were issued hand-coloured in opaque watercolour
and washes. Hand-colouring in translucent
watercolour washes was adopted extensively
in the first half of the 19th century,
again principally in England, for decorative
or reproductive aquatints such as topography,
sporting prints, and natural history. Caricatures
and little fancy pieces were often sold
in two price ranges (penny plain, tuppence
coloured); though the ‘plain’ impressions
have often been subsequently ‘upgraded’ by
later colouring.
Hans
Figura (1898–1978): "Fishing Boats,
Venice".
Colour aquatint, c1930. (160 x 218
mm)
Modern
colour intaglio prints, whatever their
nationality, are almost without exception
designed and printed in several ready-mixed
tints from multiple plates. Sometimes the
number of colours is further increased
by colouring à la poupée
some or all of the multiple plates. Though
there are examples of modern colour etchings,
drypoints and line engravings (more likely
to be coloured à la poupée
on a single plate), as in the late 18th
century the tone process aquatint has been
found to lend itself best to colour-printing
from multiple plates.
Although
the modern Etching Revival is predominantly
an art form of black and white, the ‘discovery’ of
Japanese colour woodblock prints led to
a surge of interest by European artists
in colour printing from the 1890’s
into the early decades of the 20th century,
especially in France.
In Paris the printer and etcher Eugène
Delâtre encouraged many of his contemporaries
such as Louis Legrand, Richard Ranft and
Auguste Brouet to attempt colour aquatint,
and founded and was the first president of
the Société des Graveurs en
Couleurs.
In London, the French emigré Théodore
Roussel, founded the Society of Graver Printers
in Colour and made some exceptional colour
intaglio prints, even colour etching complementary
mounts and frames. In Vienna Luigi Kasimir
and Hans Figura (see illustration above) were
enthusiastic and prolific colour aquatint
engravers.
Though
graphic art finds its most powerful expression
in black and white, French 18th century
colour prints are exciting as the incunabula
of intaglio colour printing, a merging
of the boundaries between science and art.
There are also a number of masterpieces
and interesting examples of colour prints
by early 20th century printmakers. |
