DOI issue:
Nr. 78 (Septembre 1899)
DOI article:Singer, Hans Wolfgang: Modern german lithography: Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Fankfort-on-the-Main
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19232#0277
Modern German Lithography
printed green, and a greyish-brown tone plate, which
again combine with the yellow of the paper to form
a beautiful harmony. In The Harrow the white of
the paper is utilised effectively for the beard of the
old man and spots on the cows. Perhaps the litho-
graph he calls Farm Houses is the best of all. It
is evening twilight, with the first quarter moon
already visible in the sky. A peasant woman is
collecting a bundle of hay in a meadow behind
some farm-houses. It is difficult to detect the
number of plates employed. Though no dark inks
were used, the dusk twilight effect is admirably
reproduced, probably by superprinting transparent
inks. H. Otto certainly holds his own among the
foremost lithographers of the day.
Frankfort does not possess a “ school ” of artists
—happy Frankfort! Such artists as the town can
call its own live and work distinct from one
another. A number of them have done litho-
graphs, Burger, Von Pidoll, Steinhausen, Thoma,
and others. Pidoll’s views look very much like
woodcuts. The most of the lithographs of Stein-
hausen, who has exercised such an influence upon
Thoma, are beautiful designs, but they are no more
than simple pen drawings on stone, and therefore
do not partake of the interest which so much of the
work of to-day commands on account of its novelty.
Thoma, on the contrary, has taught lithography to
say quite new things.
Thoma used to design frames for his paintings,
generally plain broad strips of wood, upon which
he painted ornamental friezes. To simplify this
work he one day lithographed such borders, and
hereafter pasted the lithographs on the frames,
colouring the designs afterwards by hand. This
is the way he came to try lithography as a distinct
art and for its own sake. His first lithographs
were portraits, among them that of his mother in
her eighty-eighth year, of a young girl, Miss
Sattler, of the Art Historian Thode, and some
studies of heads. The treatment was analogous
to that he employed for the frame-borders. The
lithographic drawing was very simple and not
pushed to the final result, so to speak. This was
attained by adding a slight touch of colour here and
there with the brush. Sometimes a copy will show
more of this retouching by hand, and really falls
but little short of being a water-colour (or pastel)
drawing by the artist. The print-room at Dresden
contains several superb examples of this kind.
printed green, and a greyish-brown tone plate, which
again combine with the yellow of the paper to form
a beautiful harmony. In The Harrow the white of
the paper is utilised effectively for the beard of the
old man and spots on the cows. Perhaps the litho-
graph he calls Farm Houses is the best of all. It
is evening twilight, with the first quarter moon
already visible in the sky. A peasant woman is
collecting a bundle of hay in a meadow behind
some farm-houses. It is difficult to detect the
number of plates employed. Though no dark inks
were used, the dusk twilight effect is admirably
reproduced, probably by superprinting transparent
inks. H. Otto certainly holds his own among the
foremost lithographers of the day.
Frankfort does not possess a “ school ” of artists
—happy Frankfort! Such artists as the town can
call its own live and work distinct from one
another. A number of them have done litho-
graphs, Burger, Von Pidoll, Steinhausen, Thoma,
and others. Pidoll’s views look very much like
woodcuts. The most of the lithographs of Stein-
hausen, who has exercised such an influence upon
Thoma, are beautiful designs, but they are no more
than simple pen drawings on stone, and therefore
do not partake of the interest which so much of the
work of to-day commands on account of its novelty.
Thoma, on the contrary, has taught lithography to
say quite new things.
Thoma used to design frames for his paintings,
generally plain broad strips of wood, upon which
he painted ornamental friezes. To simplify this
work he one day lithographed such borders, and
hereafter pasted the lithographs on the frames,
colouring the designs afterwards by hand. This
is the way he came to try lithography as a distinct
art and for its own sake. His first lithographs
were portraits, among them that of his mother in
her eighty-eighth year, of a young girl, Miss
Sattler, of the Art Historian Thode, and some
studies of heads. The treatment was analogous
to that he employed for the frame-borders. The
lithographic drawing was very simple and not
pushed to the final result, so to speak. This was
attained by adding a slight touch of colour here and
there with the brush. Sometimes a copy will show
more of this retouching by hand, and really falls
but little short of being a water-colour (or pastel)
drawing by the artist. The print-room at Dresden
contains several superb examples of this kind.