DOI Heft:
Nr. 210 (August, 1914)
DOI Artikel:Salaman, Malcom C.: The colour-prints of Edward L. Lawrenson
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43456#0126
The Colour-Prints of E. L. Lawrenson
that Mr. Lawrenson certainly manipulates his colours
upon his plates with more brilliant effects than most
of the makers of colour-prints from aquatint-plates,
and doubtless that accounts for their exceptional
success in America.
But, just as I am convinced that there is a
prosperous future for the modern colour-print of
original pictorial interest, so I am firmly of opinion
that the most promising medium for it is either the
Japanese way of wood-blocks, or Mr. William Giles’s
new application of the principle of relief-blocks
to metal-plates. For with this it is possible to
protect the pigment from the blackening effect
of the metal by a thin coating of shellac, and so
to attain results of beautiful unadulterated colour
in the printing. The surfaces of the metal—zinc
preferably, perhaps, as being easier to work—
intended for the colour-shapes of the design, are
produced by biting away with acid the parts not
to be printed. Different portions of the picture,
according to the colour-scheme, are so treated on
usually about five separate plates, and these are
superimposed in the same way as wood-blocks or
aquatint plates. It is to be wished, and no one
wishes it more than Mr. Giles, that artists interested
in etching or engraving for colour will try this method
and help to develop it, for it is at present only in
a pioneer stage. I believe, however, that there are
rich possibilities in the method, for it is really only
the question of colour-quality that prejudices many
artists and print collectors against the colour-print.
And certainly these are justified by the muddy tones
in which mezzotints, aquatints, and even line-
etchings, are sometimes pretentiously printed.
But when once it is recognised that the modern
original colour-print can give, with interesting
pictorial design, the charm of pure and luminous
colour, then one may hope that it will be accorded
just respect as a legitimate branch of art, and that
even the Royal Academy will consider it as much
worthy of acceptance as a mezzotint copy of an old
mezzotint translation of a popular picture. Let us
hope that Mr. Lawrenson will continue to devote his
admirable pictorial gifts and enterprising craftsman-
ship to bringing about this wider recognition of the
original colour-print of to-day.
“THE GEORGE INN, DORCHESTER.”
94
BY E. L. LAWRENSON
that Mr. Lawrenson certainly manipulates his colours
upon his plates with more brilliant effects than most
of the makers of colour-prints from aquatint-plates,
and doubtless that accounts for their exceptional
success in America.
But, just as I am convinced that there is a
prosperous future for the modern colour-print of
original pictorial interest, so I am firmly of opinion
that the most promising medium for it is either the
Japanese way of wood-blocks, or Mr. William Giles’s
new application of the principle of relief-blocks
to metal-plates. For with this it is possible to
protect the pigment from the blackening effect
of the metal by a thin coating of shellac, and so
to attain results of beautiful unadulterated colour
in the printing. The surfaces of the metal—zinc
preferably, perhaps, as being easier to work—
intended for the colour-shapes of the design, are
produced by biting away with acid the parts not
to be printed. Different portions of the picture,
according to the colour-scheme, are so treated on
usually about five separate plates, and these are
superimposed in the same way as wood-blocks or
aquatint plates. It is to be wished, and no one
wishes it more than Mr. Giles, that artists interested
in etching or engraving for colour will try this method
and help to develop it, for it is at present only in
a pioneer stage. I believe, however, that there are
rich possibilities in the method, for it is really only
the question of colour-quality that prejudices many
artists and print collectors against the colour-print.
And certainly these are justified by the muddy tones
in which mezzotints, aquatints, and even line-
etchings, are sometimes pretentiously printed.
But when once it is recognised that the modern
original colour-print can give, with interesting
pictorial design, the charm of pure and luminous
colour, then one may hope that it will be accorded
just respect as a legitimate branch of art, and that
even the Royal Academy will consider it as much
worthy of acceptance as a mezzotint copy of an old
mezzotint translation of a popular picture. Let us
hope that Mr. Lawrenson will continue to devote his
admirable pictorial gifts and enterprising craftsman-
ship to bringing about this wider recognition of the
original colour-print of to-day.
“THE GEORGE INN, DORCHESTER.”
94
BY E. L. LAWRENSON