DOI issue:
No. 32 (November, 1895)
DOI article:Goulding, Frederick: Lithographs and their printing: an interview with Mr. Frederick Goulding
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17295#0101
Lithographs and their Printing
at present I would rather that the results should
be judged on their own merits, without any pre-
judice for or against the material that happened
to be used."
" But you do prefer paper to stone ?"
" Yes; you can draw on paper with much
greater freedom, and with less mechanical grain
being apparent than upon stone."
"But some artists do not object to a definite
grain ? "
" Possibly ; that is a matter of personal taste.
However, if they would surely prefer a grain that
is entirely devoid of mechanical regularity, I
think some of the prints I can show you will
prove that it does exist; while, if they dislike a
prominent grain, they can choose a texture quite
devoid of any."
" Then I take it all these lithographs (as I
began to look over a pile of some sixty proofs)
have been drawn on your own paper ? "
"Yes. None of those have been drawn upon
stone. But although the paper is a most im-
portant detail, it is the printing that I want you
to notice first. If you ask how it is done, or
why I tried for these effects, all I can do is to
repeat that my forty years' experience as a printer
of etchings has been brought to bear upon it. I
have not considered whether the course was
orthodox or an innovation; but, looking at the
drawings on the faced paper as I should upon an
etched plate, I have endeavoured to give it the
class of printing which should bring out its quality
in the best way."
" In other words, you have added retroussage to
the lithographer's ordinary methods ? "
"Retroussage—no ! that word would not express
it accurately. Indeed, it is a term I never use. I
prefer to use estompc—' stumping,' in plain English.
Retroussage on a plate would mean one thing, and
retroussage as I use it—if you call it so—quite
another. Retroussage in a sense has already been
used for lithography; but stumping is a much
more expressive word, and describes a method not
before used, I think, as you will find it on some of
these prints. The idea is much the same as the
retroussage of the etching printer, but the condi-
tions are entirely different. For instance, in the one
case you are using a warm plate and warm ink, and
much depends upon the particular temperature; in
the other no warmth is applied."
" In lithography, then, you work to get an equal
degree of ink ? "
" By no means ; it is the inequality of ink that,
with other things, gives the variety."
88
" What other things ? "
" Well, here is one (taking up a most admirably
drawn head of an old man by Alfred Hartley).
This is not printed on brown paper as you may
think, but on white. I first printed the drawing,
then over this I printed a tone of solid brown, the
ink being wiped here and there on the stone,
according to the modelling of the planes of the
head. In two-colour printing you may have seen
something of the same effect, but then the transi-
tion from dark to light was abrupt, or at best an
affair of stippling. Here, as you can see, I can get
an imperceptible gradation, as subtle as the finest
wash. Mind you, I do not say all lithographs
should be so printed, nor even that this one must
always be printed in this fashion ; but I do say
that it yields an effect legitimately produced which
has not so far, I believe, been attempted on the
stone."
" It would be very difficult to tell this from the
original drawing if both were framed side by side,"
I said.
" There is no original drawing, except the print,"
said Mr. Goulding. " Lithography is not a repro-
duction ; it is a replica, a multiplication of copies ;
not a facsimile, or a paraphrase, but the actual
drawing. That is where it differs from so many
other processes. To all intents and purposes this
bold drawing of Sargent's is his actual work, every
dot and gradation he set down is there. And this
of Watts' (a head exquisitely modelled, as delicate
as a silver-point or a fine 'platinotype photograph')
is, atom for atom, as Mr. Watts drew it. Look at
it with a magnifying-glass. You will see no grain,
no regular texture, but just the effect of an exqui-
sitely dainty pencil drawing upon fairly smooth
paper."
" These are printed from the original transferred
drawing and not from ' transfers' as they are called
in the trade ? " I said incautiously.
Mr. Goulding swept away the words with an
impetuous disclaimer. "You can only take a
certain number of fine impressions off a stone,"
he said. "Just as a dry-point unsteeled is limited
in the possible prints in a first-rate state it will
allow to be taken, so is a good lithograph. Some,
of course, will yield more impressions than others,
but at most the number is limited, so that a fine
lithograph should be as rare and worth as much
from that factor, as a fine etching."
" In The Head by Mr. Hartley, and in this," I
said, taking up another drawing with two printings,
" how do you arrange for the second colour-im-
pression ? "
at present I would rather that the results should
be judged on their own merits, without any pre-
judice for or against the material that happened
to be used."
" But you do prefer paper to stone ?"
" Yes; you can draw on paper with much
greater freedom, and with less mechanical grain
being apparent than upon stone."
"But some artists do not object to a definite
grain ? "
" Possibly ; that is a matter of personal taste.
However, if they would surely prefer a grain that
is entirely devoid of mechanical regularity, I
think some of the prints I can show you will
prove that it does exist; while, if they dislike a
prominent grain, they can choose a texture quite
devoid of any."
" Then I take it all these lithographs (as I
began to look over a pile of some sixty proofs)
have been drawn on your own paper ? "
"Yes. None of those have been drawn upon
stone. But although the paper is a most im-
portant detail, it is the printing that I want you
to notice first. If you ask how it is done, or
why I tried for these effects, all I can do is to
repeat that my forty years' experience as a printer
of etchings has been brought to bear upon it. I
have not considered whether the course was
orthodox or an innovation; but, looking at the
drawings on the faced paper as I should upon an
etched plate, I have endeavoured to give it the
class of printing which should bring out its quality
in the best way."
" In other words, you have added retroussage to
the lithographer's ordinary methods ? "
"Retroussage—no ! that word would not express
it accurately. Indeed, it is a term I never use. I
prefer to use estompc—' stumping,' in plain English.
Retroussage on a plate would mean one thing, and
retroussage as I use it—if you call it so—quite
another. Retroussage in a sense has already been
used for lithography; but stumping is a much
more expressive word, and describes a method not
before used, I think, as you will find it on some of
these prints. The idea is much the same as the
retroussage of the etching printer, but the condi-
tions are entirely different. For instance, in the one
case you are using a warm plate and warm ink, and
much depends upon the particular temperature; in
the other no warmth is applied."
" In lithography, then, you work to get an equal
degree of ink ? "
" By no means ; it is the inequality of ink that,
with other things, gives the variety."
88
" What other things ? "
" Well, here is one (taking up a most admirably
drawn head of an old man by Alfred Hartley).
This is not printed on brown paper as you may
think, but on white. I first printed the drawing,
then over this I printed a tone of solid brown, the
ink being wiped here and there on the stone,
according to the modelling of the planes of the
head. In two-colour printing you may have seen
something of the same effect, but then the transi-
tion from dark to light was abrupt, or at best an
affair of stippling. Here, as you can see, I can get
an imperceptible gradation, as subtle as the finest
wash. Mind you, I do not say all lithographs
should be so printed, nor even that this one must
always be printed in this fashion ; but I do say
that it yields an effect legitimately produced which
has not so far, I believe, been attempted on the
stone."
" It would be very difficult to tell this from the
original drawing if both were framed side by side,"
I said.
" There is no original drawing, except the print,"
said Mr. Goulding. " Lithography is not a repro-
duction ; it is a replica, a multiplication of copies ;
not a facsimile, or a paraphrase, but the actual
drawing. That is where it differs from so many
other processes. To all intents and purposes this
bold drawing of Sargent's is his actual work, every
dot and gradation he set down is there. And this
of Watts' (a head exquisitely modelled, as delicate
as a silver-point or a fine 'platinotype photograph')
is, atom for atom, as Mr. Watts drew it. Look at
it with a magnifying-glass. You will see no grain,
no regular texture, but just the effect of an exqui-
sitely dainty pencil drawing upon fairly smooth
paper."
" These are printed from the original transferred
drawing and not from ' transfers' as they are called
in the trade ? " I said incautiously.
Mr. Goulding swept away the words with an
impetuous disclaimer. "You can only take a
certain number of fine impressions off a stone,"
he said. "Just as a dry-point unsteeled is limited
in the possible prints in a first-rate state it will
allow to be taken, so is a good lithograph. Some,
of course, will yield more impressions than others,
but at most the number is limited, so that a fine
lithograph should be as rare and worth as much
from that factor, as a fine etching."
" In The Head by Mr. Hartley, and in this," I
said, taking up another drawing with two printings,
" how do you arrange for the second colour-im-
pression ? "