Table Of ContentLooking
at
/
Drawings and
Prints,
Watercolours
A
Guide to Technical Terms
Paul Goldman
Looking
at
Drawings and
Prints,
Watercolours
^^
^60
Looking
at
Drawings and
Prints,
Watercolours
A
Guide to Technical Terms
Goldman
Paul
British Museum Publications
in association with the Paul Getty Museum, Malibu
J.
Cover
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906): Still Life (detail), c.1900-1906.
mm
Watercolour and graphite, 480 x 631 (i8tI X24gin).
JPGM, 83.GC.221.
Titlepage
John Everett Millais (1829-96): Lost Love, 1859. Watercolour
and bodycolour with gum arabic, 103 x 85 mm Urg X 3§hi)-
BM, 1937-4-10-3.
©1988 TheTrusteesoftheBritishMuseum
PublishedbyBritishMuseum PublicationsLtd
46BloomsburyStreet, London wcib 3qq
inassociationwith
The PaulGettyMuseum
J.
17985 PacificCoastHighway
Malibu, California 90406
Copyrightoftheillustrationsisindicatedinthecaptions
bytheinitialsBM (BritishMuseum) orJPGM PaulGettyMuseum).
Theillustrationonp.58 is©FrederickWarne(J&. Co. 1986.
British LibraryCataloguingin Publication Data
Goldman, Paul
Lookingatprints, drawingsandwatercolours
aguide totechnicalterms.
:
1. Graphicarts. Terminology
I. Title II. BritishMuseum III. J. Paul
GettyMuseum
760'.014
isbn0-7141-1638-6 (BritishMuseumPublications)
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Goldman, Paul.
Lookingatprints, drawings, andwatercolours.
—
1. Art Dictionaries. I. Title.
N33.G65 1988 76o'.03'2i 88-13241
isbn0-89236-148-4 (GettyMuseum)
DesignedbyCinamonandKitzinger
TypesetbyWyvernTypesettingLtd, Bristol
PrintedinItalybyArtiGraficheMotta
Foreword
Many art-historians and museum cura-
torsassume,oftenwrongly, thattheterms
which they employ to describe prints,
drawings and watercolours are readily
understood by the majority of visitors
to exhibitions and readers of catalogues.
Definitions of these terms are invariably
difficult to find in reference books, and
therefore the aim of this publication is to
bring together many of the most com-
monly found ones and attempt to clarify
their meanings. This book has grown out
of two earlierpublications by the author,
Looking at Drawings (1979) and Looking
at Prints (1981). Although this is more
ambitious in scale, the purpose remains
the same: to be as accurate as possible
within the confines of space.
Thebookisdirectedatthepersonlook-
ing at traditional collections of prints,
drawings and watercolours and hence
deals only briefly with photomechanical
Jost Amman (1539-91): Tmhme Woodcutter, processes and some modern develop-
1568. Woodcut, 79 x 59 [3^ x 2^in). ments in original printmaking.
BM, 159.d.ii, 1904-2-6-103(19). I have relied heavily on the help of my
colleaguesintheDepartmentofPrintsand
Drawingsat theBritishMuseum, notably
Antony Griffiths, Nicholas Turner, Lind-
say Stainton, Martin Royalton-Kisch and
Frances Carey. I am also indebted to Eric
Harding and Alan Donnithorne in the
Western Pictorial Art Section of the
Department of Conservation.
Aquatint: enlarged detail. Aquatint
Paul Sandby (1730-1809): The Encampment
in the Museum Garden, 1783. Aquatint,
340 x 478 mm (13s x i8ilin). BM,
1904-8-19-732.
Note
Words printed in small capitals refer to
otherentriesin thebook. Termswhichdonot
haveseparateentriesareininvertedcommas.
Aquatint A variety of etching and parts of the ground where he wishes to
essentially a tone process which can be obtainpurewhite. Gradationsoftone can
used to imitate the appearance of water- be achieved by careful repetition of the
colour washes. The chief element of the biting and varnishing process or by
process, which was invented in France in burnishing. This has the disadvantage of
the 1760s, is the partial protection of the being a 'negative' process, since the
surface of the plate with a porous ground 'stopped-out' areas remain white.
throughwhichtheacidcanpenetrate.The An alternative 'positive' process is
plateiscoveredwithagroundofpowdered 'sugar' or 'lift-ground' aquatint. The plate
resin which is attached to the plate by is covered in resin as inordinaryaquatint
heating. In etching, the acid bites tiny and the artist draws on the surface in a
rings around each resin grain, and these solution of sugar and water. A varnish is
hold sufficient ink when printed to give then laid over the entire plate, which is
the effect of a wash. The printmaker will then immersed in water. This causes the
'stop out' with a protecting varnish any sugar under the varnish to swell and lift,
exposingthe aquatintground; theplate is licence from Baxter, most notably by Le
thenbittenandprintedinthenormalway. Blond, andfell into disuseafter 1865. (See
C. T. Courtney Lewis, George Baxter the
Artist's proof In twentieth-century print- Picture Printer, London, 1924.)
making, an artist's proof is an impression
signedbytheartistandannotated'AP'(or Bodycolour Any type of opaque water-
something similar) which is extra to the soluble pigment. At an early period the
ordinary numbered edition. The practice opaque medium employed was lead
of signing proofs began, however, in the white. In 1834Winsorand Newton intro-
nineteenth century. ducedChineseWhite,whichiszincoxide,
and this was marketed as a substitute for
Ascribed A drawing is 'ascribed' to an lead white.
artist when it has been given to him by The bodycolour medium was known in
tradition, mostfrequentlybyan inscrip- the late fifteenth century when Diirer
tiononthedrawingoronitsmount. The madedrawingsoflandscapes,animalsand
term, however, suggests some doubt in flowers in a combination of bodycolour
the mind of the cataloguer as to the cor- and watercolour. Later artists such as
rectness of this tradition. Rubens and Van Dyck also made exten-
sive use of bodycolour, but it reached its
greatestpopularityinthe 1820sand 1830s
Attributed Adrawingis'attributed'toan in England when watercolourists, most
artistonthegroundsofstyleorsomegood notably Turner, exploited it to the full,
external evidence; however, some doubt combining the opacity of the lights with
remains about its authorship. the transparency of the washes of colour.
Sometimes they executed works in body-
Baxter Print In 1835, George Baxter colour alone. Drawings loosely termed
patented a printing technique under his 'watercolours' are frequently found to be
own name. It involved overprinting an done in a combination of transparent
intagliokey-platewithnumerouswood pigments with opaque ones. See also
or metal blocks inked in oil colours. The TEMPERA,WATERCOLOUR, GOUACHEand
technique was used by others under HEIGHTENING.
Baxter Print
George Baxmtemr (1804-67): Gems of the Great Exhibition No. 2, 52. Baxter Print,
120 x 241 (4? x 92in). BM, 1901-11-5-20.
