Technically, the Goya etchings are simple and direct. He usually combined line etching with aquatint; his masterful control of the latter, a relatively new technique, has never been surpassed. Toward the end of his life, he also made a few rich, powerful lithographs. France
Most 18th-century French etchings were drawings transferred to copper, in which the effects of pencil, pen, or chalk were imitated. Although some distinguished painters, such as Antoine Watteau, made etchings, no prints of importance were produced. Jean-Honoré Fragonard made a few lovely etchings reminiscent of Tiepolo. They have a luminous, transparent quality and express the Rococo spirit but are nevertheless minor works of a major painter. Two artists are notable for technical achievements: Jean-Charles François developed the crayon manner, and Jean-Baptiste Le Prince is credited with the invention of aquatint. Japan
The first Japanese artist to produce single prints in quantity was Torii Kiyonobu, who specialized in portraits of actors and theatre posters. His school, the Torii, dominated printing for the theatre for two centuries. Another imaginative innovator of the early 18th century was Okumura Masanobu, who experimented with inks, embossing, and gold and silver overlays. He also invented the two-colour print and generally standardized colour printing. His studio greatly influenced the evolution of colour woodcut. Suzuki Harunobu, one of the most charming masters of Japanese woodcut, created prints of infinite delicacy and grace. In this respect he is a forerunner and rival of Utamaro. A highly gifted colourist, he was one of the first to exploit the nishiki-e, or full-colour print. He was also the first to colour print backgrounds and to use blind embossing extensively to give his prints three-dimensional textures. Katsukawa Shunshō is notable for his austere portraits of actors, which he designed with much strength and intensity. Some of his portraits are among the finest in Japanese printmaking.
“Hanshozuku Bijin Soroi,” ukiyo-e colour woodcut by Okumura Masanobu (1686–1764), Tokugawa period; in the Philadelphia Museum of ArtCourtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, given by Mrs. Anne Archbold
The period from 1780 to 1790 was dominated by Torii Kiyonaga, whose work represents the ukiyo-e at its height. He was a great draftsman and designer and could harmonize in his prints the two seemingly contradictory qualities of elegance and power. Kiyonaga was one of the first to experiment with the compositional possibilities of the diptych, triptych, and pentaptych formats. Although he conceived each block as a self-contained unit, they functioned together in harmony. Kitagawa Utamaro can justly be called the supreme poet of Japanese art. Utamaro’s prints are the most perfect expression of a tender, loving contemplation of nature, which included not only birds and flowers but women as well. At age 50 he was put in jail for an offending print; broken in spirit, he died shortly after his release.
Torii Kiyonaga: Viewing Cherry BlossomsViewing Cherry Blossoms, colour woodcut by Torii Kiyonaga, late 18th century.Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: LC-DIG-jpd-00155)
During his lifetime he produced over 600 series of books and albums. Toshusai Sharaku is not only one of the most distinguished but also one of the most mysterious figures of Japanese art. Seemingly out of nowhere, his magnificent, powerful portraits of actors suddenly appeared on posters. The boldness of the portraits, verging on caricature; their psychological insight; their richness in colour all represented a daring new attitude. The originality of these prints disturbed the authorities to such an extent that the police prohibited them. In less than two years of working life, Sharaku had produced approximately 145 portraits; then the prodigious flow of work stopped, and he disappeared again. Printmaking in the 19th century
The 19th century was a turbulent period of art, one aesthetic revolution following the other. France
French domination of 19th-century art is comparable to northern domination of 15th-century printmaking. Few graphic artists of importance worked outside France. The great French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres made only a few etchings, mainly portraits; but, as demonstrated by the lithograph L’Odalisque (1825), his draftsmanship was incomparable. Eugène Delacroix left a much more extensive graphic oeuvre: 24 etchings and 131 lithographs. Both in subject matter and style, Delacroix’s prints are eloquent expressions of the Romantic spirit. In his tragically short life, Théodore Géricault made a series of powerful lithographs; his horses are considered classics in their genre.
Mephistopheles Offering His Help to Faust, illustration for Goethe's Faust, lithograph by Eugène Delacroix.The Bettman Archive
At midcentury, a rebellion against studio painting took place. A group of young landscape painters, most of whom were also printmakers, formed a group that became known as the Barbizon school. The etchings of Charles-François Daubigny, Théodore Rousseau, and Camille Corot were close to the spirit of the 17th-century Dutch landscapes. Corot made prints whose spontaneity foreshadowed Impressionism; he also experimented with the newly discovered photographic method of cliché-verre.
Another member of this group, Jean-François Millet, was concerned particularly with depicting peasant life. His small but simple etchings are reminiscent of the 17th-century Dutch genre painter Adriaen van Ostade at his best.
Honoré Daumier, one of the foremost political satirists of printmaking, was associated with the Barbizon school only through friendships. He produced over 4,000 lithographs (many of them newspaper illustrations), which are visually powerful expressions of his passionate convictions. His best work ranks with that of the greatest masters of printmaking.
Rue Transnonain, le 15 Avril 1834, lithograph by Honoré Daumier, 1834; in the Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.2957
The Apse of Notre Dame, etching by Charles Méryon, 1855; in the British Museum, London.Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.
The Good Samaritan, lithograph by Rodolphe Bresdin, 1861; in the Art Institute of Chicago. 56.4 × 44.3 cm.Through prior bequests of Charles Deering, Maxine Kunstadter and Carl O. Schniewind; through prior acquisitions of the Joseph Brooks Fair Endowment, The Carter H. Harrison, Print and Drawing Club and Print Department Purchase Funds; through prior gift of an anonymous donor, 1989.478/Photography © The Art Institute of Chicago
Redon, Odilon: La MortLa Mort: mon ironie dépasse toutes les autres!, lithograph by Odilon Redon, 1889. 26.2 × 19.7 cm.Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Rosenwald CollectionA number of French artists were solitary figures working outside of any school; Charles Méryon, Rodolphe Bresdin, and Odilon Redon, for example. Méryon led a short, tragic life, living in poverty and dying insane. His major work is a series of landscapes of Paris—powerfully drawn, moody prints combining an air of mystery with morbid poetry. Bresdin was also a solitary figure, unappreciated and misunderstood most of his life. His etchings and lithographs are characterized by completely personal and fantastically rich imagery. The great symbolist painter Redon initially made prints under the influence of Bresdin. His graphic work—a few etchings but mostly lithographs—consists of about 206 prints, whose strange, often bizarre imagery powerfully influenced the Surrealists of the 20th century.