Mezzotint

mid-eighteenth century, to reproduce portraits and other

paintings. Since the mid-nineteenth century it has been
relatively little used. Robert Kipniss and Peter Ilsted are
two notable 20th-century exponents of the technique; M.
C. Escher also made eight mezzotints.
British mezzotint collecting was a great craze from about
1760 to the Great Crash of 1929, also spreading to America. The main area of collecting was British portraits; hit
oil paintings from the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition were routinely, and protably, reproduced in mezzotint throughout this period, and other mezzotinters reproduced older portraits of historical gures, or if necessary, made them up. The favourite period to collect was
roughly from 1750 to 1820, the great period of the British
portrait. There were two basic styles of collection: some
concentrated on making a complete collection of material within a certain scope, while others aimed at perfect
condition and quality (which declines in mezzotints after
a relatively small number of impressions are taken from
a plate), and in collecting the many "proof states" which
artists and printers had obligingly provided for them from
early on. Leading collectors included William Eaton,
2nd Baron Cheylesmore and the Irishman John Chaloner
Smith.[2]

Sunshine V, mezzotint by Peter Ilsted

Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method.[1] It was the rst tonal
method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced
without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching,
cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonality by
roughening the plate with thousands of little dots made by
a metal tool with small teeth, called a rocker. In printing, the tiny pits in the plate hold the ink when the face
of the plate is wiped clean. A high level of quality and
richness in the print can be achieved.

2 Dark to light method

This became the most common method. The whole surface (usually) of a metal, usually copper, plate is roughened evenly, manually with a rocker, or mechanically.
If the plate were printed at this point it would show as
solid black. The image is then created by selectively burnishing areas of the surface of the metal plate with metal
tools; the smoothed parts will print lighter than those areas not smoothed by the burnishing tool. A burnisher
has a smooth, round end, which attens the minutely protruding points comprising the roughened surface of the
metal printing plate. Areas smoothed completely at will
not hold ink at all; such areas will print white, that is,
without ink. By varying the degree of smoothing, midtones between black and white can be created, hence the
name mezzo-tinto which is Italian for "half-tone" or halfpainted. This is called working from dark to light, or
the subtractive method.

History

The mezzotint printmaking method was invented by

the German amateur artist Ludwig von Siegen (1609c
1680). His earliest mezzotint print dates to 1642 and
is a portrait of Countess Amalie Elisabeth of HanauMnzenberg. This was made by working from light to
dark. The rocker seems to have been invented by Prince
Rupert of the Rhine, a famous cavalry commander in the
English Civil War, who was the next to use the process,
and took it to England. Sir Peter Lely saw the potential
for using it to publicise his portraits, and encouraged a
number of Dutch printmakers to come to England. The
process was especially widely used in England from the
1

TONE

5 Detailed technique
Plates can be mechanically roughened; one way is to rub
ne metal lings over the surface with a piece of glass;
the ner the lings, the smaller the grain of the surface.
Special roughening tools called 'rockers have been in use
since at least the eighteenth century. The method commonly in use today is to use a steel rocker approximately
ve inches wide, which has between 45 and 120 teeth per
inch on the face of a blade in the shape of a shallow arc,
with a wooden handle projecting upwards in a T-shape.
Rocked steadily from side to side at the correct angle, the
rocker will proceed forward creating burrs in the surface
of the copper. The plate is then moved either rotated by
a set number of degrees or through 90 degrees according
to preference and then rocked in another pass. This is
repeated until the plate is roughened evenly and will print
a completely solid tone of black.

Early mezzotint by Vaillerant, Siegens assistant or tutor. Young

man reading, with statue of Cupid. Probably made using light to
dark technique. 27.5 21.3 cm

Light to dark method

Alternatively, it is possible to create the image directly

by only roughening a blank plate selectively, where the
darker parts of the image are to be. This is called working
from light to dark, or the additive method. The rst
mezzotints by Ludwig von Siegen were made in this way.
Especially in this method, the mezzotint can be combined
with other intaglio techniques, such as engraving, on areas
of the plate not roughened, or even with the dark to light
method.

Printing
The rst known mezzotint, by Ludwig von Siegen, 1642

Printing the nished plate is the same for either method,

and follows the normal way for an intaglio plate; the whole
surface is inked, the ink is then wiped o the surface to
leave ink only in the pits of the still rough areas below the 6 Tone
original surface of the plate. The plate is put through a
high-pressure printing press next to a sheet of paper, and Mezzotint is known for the luxurious quality of its tones:
the process repeated.
rst, because an evenly, nely roughened surface holds a
Because the pits in the plate are not deep, only a lot of ink, allowing deep solid colors to be printed; secsmall number of top-quality impressions (copies) can be ondly because the process of smoothing the plate with
printed before the quality of the tone starts to degrade as burin, burnisher and scraper allows ne gradations in tone
the pressure of the press begins to smooth them out. Per- to be developed. The scraper is a triangular ended tool,
haps only one or two hundred really good impressions can and the burnisher has a smooth round end not unlike
many spoon handles.
be taken.

Mezzotint engravers
Ludwig von Siegen inventor
Prince Rupert of the Rhine

mezzotint with Guy Langevin @YouTube

Johann Jacob Ridinger (1736-1784), youngest son

of Johann Elias Ridinger, who worked in mezzotint
himself, too

National Portrait Gallery, London: The early history

of mezzotint and the prints of Richard Tompson and
Alexander Browne

John Dixon (about 17401811)

Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF),
which contains material on mezzotint

Richard Josey (18401906), engraver of James McNeill Whistlers Whistlers Mother

M. C. Escher
Peter Ilsted
John Raphael Smith
Alexander Hay Ritchie
T.F. Simon
Toru Iwaya
John Sartain
G. H. Rothe (19352007)
Luke Vehorn
Francisco Souto
Carol Wax
Robert Kipniss
Julie Niskanen
Jorge Mateos
John Martin

Notes

[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mezzotint
[2] Griths, 134-137; 141-142

Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Printed image in

the West: Mezzotint

Bernhard Vogel (1683-1737)

John Young (17551825)

10 External links

References
Chisholm, Hugh, ed.
(1911).
"mezzotint".
Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge
University Press.
Griths, Antony (ed), Landmarks in Print Collecting - Connoisseurs and Donors at the British Museum
since 1753, p. 138, 1996, British Museum Press,
ISBN 0714126098
Carol Wax, The Mezzotint: History and Technique
(Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990)

11

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11.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Mezzotint Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezzotint?oldid=677319462 Contributors: Michael Hardy, Ixfd64, Justin Johnson, Delirium, Andres, Samw, Lommer, Reddi, Sebastian Wallroth, Wereon, Leonard G., Mu, Beland, Chepry, ELApro, Freakofnurture, DanielCD,
Rich Farmbrough, Cfailde, LindsayH, Dungodung, A2Kar, Clubmarx, Derbeth, Pwqn, Mandarax, Sparkit, FlaBot, Margosbot~enwiki,
JM.Beaubourg, Protarion, Haon, Little Savage, Saudade7, Petri Krohn, Lawrencekhoo, Bluebot, Dawd, CyrilB, Ruby miette, Astrubi, Cydebot, Thijs!bot, Cladeal832, Goldenrowley, Midnightdreary, Xn4, Bus stop, Bjrn som tegner, R'n'B, Printguy, DrKay, Johnbod, DorganBot,
GroveGuy, Niceguyedc, Estirabot, Losthalo, Rickremember, Addbot, Taty2007, Lithoderm, Lightbot, Luckas-bot, Amirobot, Eightheads,
James500, Bob Burkhardt, Petropoxy (Lithoderm Proxy), GrouchoBot, RibotBOT, FrescoBot, D'ohBot, Bmclaughlin9, EmausBot, Artinformant, Sman28, PBS-AWB, Lidingo11, ClueBot NG, Chitt66, Doorknob747, Ted Brown 88, Mogism, WilliamDigiCol, Hubertl, Jorge
Mateos, Onuphriate and Anonymous: 41

11.2

Images

File:6409_bassenge2vaillerant.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/6409_bassenge2vaillerant.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Bassenge Auction House, 2006, lot 6409 Original artist: Wallerant Vaillant
File:Chodowiecki_Basedow_Tafel_21_c_Z.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Chodowiecki_
Basedow_Tafel_21_c_Z.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: DANIEL CHODOWIECKI 62 bisher unverentlichte Handzeichnungen
zu dem Elementarwerk von Johann Bernhard Basedow. Mit einem Vorworte von Max von Boehn. Voigtlnder-Tetzner, Frankfurt am
Main 1922. (self scanned from book) Original artist: Daniel Chodowiecki
File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Ludwig_von_Siegen_-_Portrait_of_Amelie_Elisabeth_von_Hessen.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/8/8b/Ludwig_von_Siegen_-_Portrait_of_Amelie_Elisabeth_von_Hessen.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mztn/hod_18.47.htm Original artist: Ludwig von Siegen (c. 1609 c. 1680)
File:SunshineV.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/90/SunshineV.jpg License: PD-US Contributors: ? Original
artist: ?

11.3

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