DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73059#0043
Falsely Tinted Prints.
CHAPTER XXXV.
Falsely Tinted Prints, and How to
Distinguish Them.
O<T'T (T)(T>T C engraving appears to be peculiarly adapted for printing in
1 I colours, and when this is effected with even a moderate
amount of skill, it produces a soft, rich, and harmonious ensemble, which could not
be produced by the printing in colour of line engraving or of any combination of line
and stipple. The due balance of colour—using the word technically—is lost when the
effect, originally faithfully rendered by the line engraver in black and white, is sought to
be made more realistic or more taking by the use of colours, the result being harsh,
vulgar, and eminently unsatisfactory. Some examples (in the author's possession) of
coloured portraits by R. Cooper, where the flesh is stippled and the draperies are in line,
are, as far as the latter are concerned, complete failures, though when the stippled portions
are examined separately the effect is perfect. Another example of a much over-rated but
nevertheless prettily designed and tastefully executed oval line engraving, without any
admixture of stipple, of "The Children in the Wood," drawn by J. H. Benwell—the
figures engraved by W. Sharp, and the landscape by W. Byrne and T. Medland,—is,
though a brilliant impression, and beautifully printed in colours, a complete failure.
Colour is against the genius of line.
It may be presumed, from old examples still in existence, that printing in colours,
both from wooden blocks and copperplates, suggested itself as an attractive improvement
to some of the very earliest engravers and printers.
Mr. Louis Fagan, of the British Museum, in his useful handbook* —Bryan mentions the
* " Handbook to the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum." London : George Bell & Sons, 1876.
same thing,—says that " Hercules Seghars, a painter of the Flemish school, born in 1625, is
supposed to have invented a method of printing in oil colours on cloth." Seghars' process
can hardly be called printing in oil colours, as it appears to have consisted simply in the
21 application
CHAPTER XXXV.
Falsely Tinted Prints, and How to
Distinguish Them.
O<T'T (T)(T>T C engraving appears to be peculiarly adapted for printing in
1 I colours, and when this is effected with even a moderate
amount of skill, it produces a soft, rich, and harmonious ensemble, which could not
be produced by the printing in colour of line engraving or of any combination of line
and stipple. The due balance of colour—using the word technically—is lost when the
effect, originally faithfully rendered by the line engraver in black and white, is sought to
be made more realistic or more taking by the use of colours, the result being harsh,
vulgar, and eminently unsatisfactory. Some examples (in the author's possession) of
coloured portraits by R. Cooper, where the flesh is stippled and the draperies are in line,
are, as far as the latter are concerned, complete failures, though when the stippled portions
are examined separately the effect is perfect. Another example of a much over-rated but
nevertheless prettily designed and tastefully executed oval line engraving, without any
admixture of stipple, of "The Children in the Wood," drawn by J. H. Benwell—the
figures engraved by W. Sharp, and the landscape by W. Byrne and T. Medland,—is,
though a brilliant impression, and beautifully printed in colours, a complete failure.
Colour is against the genius of line.
It may be presumed, from old examples still in existence, that printing in colours,
both from wooden blocks and copperplates, suggested itself as an attractive improvement
to some of the very earliest engravers and printers.
Mr. Louis Fagan, of the British Museum, in his useful handbook* —Bryan mentions the
* " Handbook to the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum." London : George Bell & Sons, 1876.
same thing,—says that " Hercules Seghars, a painter of the Flemish school, born in 1625, is
supposed to have invented a method of printing in oil colours on cloth." Seghars' process
can hardly be called printing in oil colours, as it appears to have consisted simply in the
21 application