International studio (19.1903)

77^<?g-('c/c//p 777///^



"SAINT CATHERINE" FROM THE THREE-COLOUR
PRINT BY J. C. LE BLON
Frederick, and a few other plates had been made,
a company was formed with a good deal of
capital to work the patent that had been obtained
in the meantime. It was called the " Picture
Oihce"; Colonel Guise was its president, and Le
Bion was made technicai director at a good saiary.
More than 25 plates wereproduced, mostly copies
after paintings then in Kensington Paiace. Le
Blon's first attempts had been moderate in size,
and he often used more than three piates. Now
the object was to repiace the work of the picture-
copier, and therefore iarge plates, equai in size
to the original paintings, were produced, and
the tendency to work strictiy on the theoretical
three-colour principle is apparent. No fewer than
9.000 copies were printed : the prices varied from
i^. to one guinea, and 7J6oo worth, z'.i. about
1.000 copies were actuaiiy soid. The stock
of the company soid at a high premium in the
beginning, when enthusiasm ran high.
This state of affairs did not last iong. Serious
mismanagement seems to have taken place very
soon ; the expenses of the undertaking were quite
out of proportion to the returns. Attempts to
economise by engaging cheaper workmen only
resulted in producing inferior work which would
not sell at all, and thus increased the losses. A
meeting of the stockholders had to be called
on the 7th of March, 1722, in which severe

and then came in the retinue of a noble-
man to Rome, where he applied himself to the
study of Maratti. But he was careless, and pro-
mised to do little good, when he was taken to
Holland by a friend, B. Overbeek, who wished
to guard him from going to the bad. Le Blon
settled at Amsterdam and achieved some success
as a miniature painter; and later, when his eye-
sight began to fail, as a painter of cabinet pictures
and portraits under life-size.
It was here that the idea of colour-printing
occurred to him, and that he began to make his
first experiments. These were a <?/ IH
then Governor of Breda, and
/y a AhM??, after a paint-
ing by himself. He kept the process secret, and
perpiexed as well as delighted the persons to whom
he showed the hrst-fruits of his labour, among
them Prince Eugene of Savoy. His idea was to
obtain a patent, have it bought by a company,
and thus secure for himself large financial advan-
tages out of his invention of " Printing Paintings."
He was, however, not successful here, nor at the
Hague, nor at Paris.
Finally he cametoLondon, about 1720, and
found in Colonel Guise a strong supporter. He
and many others became interested in the scheme,
and by their means Le Blon and his invention were
brought to the personal notice of King George I.
After the sovereign's portrait and one of Prince

THE CARONDOLET FROM TIJE THREE-COLOUR
PORTRAIT (AFTER 1-RINT BY J. C. LE BLON
S. LUCIANO)
262