Studio: international art (6.1896)

Lithographs and their Printing

devoted himself to experiments in the prepara-
tion of transfer-papers, and new modifications
of printing from the stone, was in itself evidence
that rumour had not lied. No doubt, the great
exhibition in Paris to celebrate the centenary
of lithography, has brought it more prominently
before the general public in the last few months ;
but, as readers of The Studio need not be told,
the series of lithographs by Mr. Whistler have
proved long since that the undeserved neglect of a
charming medium was a thing of the past. For
what Mr. Whistler did yesterday and is doing to-
day, a great many people are likely to do (if they
can) the day after to-morrow.

Yet even this fact would hardly explain the new
interest in lithography which is being shown by
those who are otherwise more or less opposed to
Mr. Whistler's methods. For, as those who study
the history below the surface of any movement in
art and literature are sure to discover, at certain
times a subject seems in the air, and attracts all
sorts of temperaments to experiment with it
simultaneously. This is the more odd, because a
dozen instances could be adduced to show that
the method which suddenly attracts new disciples
quite independently, each being unconscious of
the others, has been equally near at hand for
experiment for years previously. As, when in
1873, the French forms of verse were being written
again in English after centuries of disuse half a
dozen people chanced upon the same idea; so
possibly lithography has attracted attention apart
from the Songs in Stone, which were the first
examples of its new power that reached the
English public.

As a rule, however, a sudden re-awakening to
the advantages of a neglected art or craft is coinci-
dental with improvements in its mechanism or some
simplification of its laws or methods. In litho-
graphy, it was no doubt the improvement of the
specially-prepared paper, whereon drawings could
be worked in chalk with as much freedom as upon
the stone itself, which set artists experimenting.
It is one thing to have a costly and unwieldy stone
sent to your studio to be formally tried, and an-
other to take a sheet of paper and work straight
away with a crayon, rejecting failures, until one
seems worth putting down on stone for trial proofs.

This method of working has been unwarrantably
discredited. There are those who have said that
no drawing so made can be considered a genuine
lithograph. But lately a certain artist sent a litho-
graph in this way to the Exhibition of the Royal
Academy, to find that it was at first refused on

these grounds. Afterwards, when the process was
clearly explained to those in authority, they with-
drew their objection.

For, in this process, the drawing that was on the
paper has vanished when the transfer to stone has
been made—every jot and tittle of the artist's
handiwork has passed from the paper to the stone.
Therefore, since his drawing was on the paper, and
the paper after this treatment shows no sign of it,
it is obvious that you cannot call such a transfer a
reproduction. It is, in fact, but a purely mechanical
shifting of the drawing, which no more affects the
work itself than re-lining a tattered canvas or
transferring a fresco from its place on the wall to a
portable frame would affect the painting or fresco.

It is needful to explain this point fully, because
the new adherents of lithography seem destined
to adopt this method of working. In a day of mul-
titudinous " processes " for reproduction, it must
be clearly understood that this is no " process"
(as the word is technically used to-day), but
merely a mechanical expedient, whereby the face
of a chalk line or dot is placed on the stone, and you
have its back exposed instead. That is all the
change that occurs—no modification, exaggeration,
or any distortion, but an automatic removal of the
sketch to a surface from which it can be printed.
As a moment's study will show, a print for a draw-
ing thus shifted from paper to stone, yields an
impression which keeps "the right and left" of
the artist work as he drew it—not as in etching,
or in a drawing made on the stone itself, in a
reversed form.

So much preamble is essential.

"What made you turn your attention to litho-
graphy ? " I began, as I found Mr. Goulding amid
the results of his work.

" It was at a meeting of the Art Workers' Guild,
where a demonstration of lithographic printing was
given, which interested me very much, that led
me to consider whether forty years' experience in
the printing of etchings might not be applied to
printing lithographs. When I broached this theory,
the opinion of many experts was contrary to mine,
so I determined to prove that my view was prac-
tical, and the results, as you will see, may be left to
justify my belief."

" Do you claim to have discovered any new
method or material ? "

" No; but I think I have applied to the print-
ing of lithographs certain principles that had
hitherto been only used for etching. As for the
material, I have used a special paper. The secret
of its preparation I will make public shortly. Just

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