Print collector's quarterly (12.1925)

SOME LITHOGRAPHS OF THE PAST
AND THE FUTURE
By JOHN COPLEY

N wan days we call lithography the Cinderella
of the graphic arts, but the figure is false.
It were truer to talk of an infant Hermes
kicking his god-like legs over the cradle and
running to round up the celestial cattle. Lithography
is an art in its youth, with a great future before it ;
but much of its youth has been mis-spent ; there has
been too much cattle-lifting. Or still more truly is
lithography the young Dionysus huddled in the thigh of
Zeus to be protected from evil wills ; many such have
surrounded it from its birth ; but the days of its divine
madness are ahead ; it is a god, and the world willingly
or unwillingly will come to serve its rites and celebrate
its mysteries.
Among artistic mediums lithography is one of the
youngest. It was born in Bavaria not a hundred and
thirty years ago ; and its path has not been a smooth
one. Its very amiability and yielding grace have
harmed it. Too often it has been frivolously played
with and brutal people have bullied it, till at times it
has seemed but “ a sorry jade,” the commodity of the
world. But it is a noble art and will come to noble uses.
Its ascent may have been slow and obstructed, but its


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