Chromolithography
Encyclopedia
Chromolithography is a method for making multi-color prints
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
. This type of color printing stemmed from the process of lithography
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
, and it includes all types of lithography that are printed in color. When chromolithography is used to reproduce photographs, the term photochrom
Photochrom
Photochrom"Photochrom" is the spelling used by the Library of Congress, for historical reasons, in its classification and description of its collection of such images. Variants of the spelling exist, both in English and in German. "Photochrome" is the English spelling used in some contexts, e.g....
is frequently used. Lithographers sought to find a way to print on flat surfaces with the use of chemicals instead of relief
Relief print
A relief print is an image created by a printmaking process where protruding surface faces of the matrix are inked; recessed areas are ink free. Printing the image is therefore a relatively simple matter of inking the face of the matrix and bringing it in firm contact with the paper...
or intaglio
Intaglio (printmaking)
Intaglio is a family of printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface, known as the matrix or plate, and the incised line or area holds the ink. Normally, copper or zinc plates are used as a surface, and the incisions are created by etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint or...
printing.
Chromolithography became the most successful of several methods of color printing
Color printing
Color printing or Colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color...
developed by the 19th century; other methods were developed by printers such as Jacob Christoph Le Blon
Jacob Christoph Le Blon
Jacob Christoph Le Blon, or Jakob Christoffel Le Blon, was a German painter and engraver who invented the system of three- and four-colour printing, using an RYBK color model similar to the modern CMYK system.[2] He used the mezzotint method to engrave three or four metal plates to make prints...
, George Baxter and Edmund Evans
Edmund Evans
Edmund Evans was a prominent English wood engraver and colour printer during the Victorian era. Evans specialized in full-colour printing, which became popular in the mid-19th century...
, and mostly relied on using several woodblocks
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
with the colors. Hand-coloring also remained important; elements of the official British Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
maps were colored by hand by boys until 1875. The initial technique involved the use of multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, and was still extremely expensive when done for the best quality results. Depending on the number of colors present, a chromolithograph could take months to produce, by very skilled workers. However much cheaper prints could be produced by simplifying both the number of colors used, and the refinement of the detail in the image. Cheaper images, like advertisements, relied heavily on an initial black print (not always a lithograph), on which colors were then overprinted. To make an expensive reproduction print as what was once referred to as a “’chromo’”, a lithographer, with a finished painting in front of him, gradually created and corrected the many stones using proofs to look as much as possible like the painting in front of him, sometimes using dozens of layers.
Process
The process of chromolithography is chemical, because an image is applied to a stoneRock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
or zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
plate with a grease-based crayon
Crayon
A crayon is a stick of colored wax, charcoal, chalk, or other materials used for writing, coloring, drawing, and other methods of illustration. A crayon made of oiled chalk is called an oil pastel; when made of pigment with a dry binder, it is simply a pastel; both are popular media for color...
. (Limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
and zinc are two commonly-used materials in the production of chromolithographs.) After the image is drawn onto stone, the stone is gummed with gum arabic
Gum arabic
220px|thumb|right|Acacia gumGum arabic, also known as acacia gum, chaar gund, char goond, or meska, is a natural gum made of hardened sap taken from two species of the acacia tree; Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal...
solution and weak nitric acid, and then inked with oil-based paints
Oil paint
Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the...
and passed through a printing press along with a sheet of paper to transfer the image to the paper. Colors may be added to the print by drawing the area to receive the color on a different stone, and printing the new color onto the paper. Each color in the image must be separately drawn onto a new stone or plate and applied to the paper one at a time. It was not unusual for twenty to twenty-five stones to be used on a single image. Each sheet of paper will therefore pass through the printing press as many times as there are colors in the final print. In order that each color is placed in the right position in each print, each stone or plate must be precisely ‘registered,’ or lined up, on the paper using a system of register marks.
Origins
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, were also trying to find a new way to print in color. Godefroy Engelmann
Godefroy Engelmann
Godfroy Engelmann was a 19th century Franco-German Artist.-Biography:Godefroy Engelmann was born in 1788 in Mühlhausen, a small town near the France/Switzerland/Germany border. At the time of his birth Mulhouse was a free German republic associated with the Swiss Confederation, but was annexed by...
of Mulhouse
Mulhouse
Mulhouse |mill]] hamlet) is a city and commune in eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. With a population of 110,514 and 278,206 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2006, it is the largest city in the Haut-Rhin département, and the second largest in the Alsace region after...
in France was awarded a patent on chromolithography in July 1837, but there are disputes over whether chromolithography was already in use before this date, as some sources say, pointing to areas of printing such as the production of playing card
Playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games...
s.
Arrival in America
F.W.P. Greenwood
Francis William Pitt Greenwood was a Unitarian minister of King's Chapel in Boston, Massachusetts in the 19th-century.-Biography:...
—was created by William Sharp
William Sharp (lithographer)
London painter William Sharp is credited for the introduction of chromolithography to America in 1840.-External links:*...
in 1840. Many of the chromolithographs were created and purchased in urban areas. The paintings were initially used as decoration in American parlors as well as for decoration within middle-class homes. They were prominent after the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
because of their low production costs and ability to be mass produced
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
, and because the methods allowed pictures to look more like hand-painted oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
s. Production costs were only low if the chromolithographs were cheaply produced, but top-quality chromos were costly to produce because of the necessary months of work and the thousands of dollars worth of equipment that had to be used. Although chromos could be mass produced, it took about three months to draw colors onto the stones and another five months to print a thousand copies. Chromolithographs became so popular in American culture that the era has been labeled as “chromo civilization”. Over time, during the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
, chromolithographs populated children's
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
and fine arts publications, as well as advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
art, in trade cards, label
Label
A label is a piece of paper, polymer, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or article, on which is printed a legend, information concerning the product, addresses, etc. A label may also be printed directly on the container or article....
s, and poster
Poster
A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...
s. They were also once used for advertisements, popular prints, and medical or scientific books.
Opposition to chromolithography
Even though chromolithographs served many uses within society at the time, many were opposed to the idea of them because of their lack of authenticity. The new forms of art were sometimes tagged as "bad art" because of their deceptive qualities. Some also felt that it could not serve as a form of art at all since it was too mechanical, and that the true spirit of a painter could never be captured in a printed version of a work. Over time, chromos were made so cheaply that they could no longer be confused with original paintings. Since production costs were low, the fabrication of chromolithographs became more a business than the creation of art.Louis Prang
A famous lithographer and publisher who strongly supported the production of chromolithographs was Louis PrangLouis Prang
Louis Prang was an American printer, lithographer and publisher. He is sometimes known as the "father of the American Christmas card".- Youth :...
. Prang was a German-born entrepreneur who printed the first American Christmas card
Christmas card
A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas and holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day by many people in Western...
. He felt that chromolithographs could look just as good as, if not better than, real paintings, and he published well-known chromolithographs based on popular paintings, including one by Eastman Johnson
Eastman Johnson
Eastman Johnson was an American painter, and Co-Founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance...
entitled The Barefoot Boy. The reason Prang decided to take on the challenge of producing chromolithographs, despite criticisms, was because he felt quality art should not be limited to the elite. Prang and others who continued to produce chromolithographs were sometimes looked down upon because of the fear that chromolithographs could undermine human abilities. With the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
already under way, this fear was not something new to Americans at the time. Many artists themselves anticipated the lack of desire for original artwork since many became accustomed to chromolithographs. As a way to make more sales, some artists had a few paintings made into chromolithographs so that people in society would at least be familiar with the painter. Once people in society were familiar with the artist, they were more likely to want to pay for an original work.
Lothar Meggendorfer
German chromolithographers, largely based in BavariaBavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, came to dominate the trade with their low-cost high-volume productions. Of these printers, Lothar Meggendorfer
Lothar Meggendorfer
Lothar Meggendorfer was a German illustrator and writer known for his superb pop-up books....
garnered international fame for his children's educational books and games. Owing to political unrest in mid-19th-century Germany, many Bavarian printers emigrated to the United Kingdom and the United States, and Germany's monopoly on chromolithographic printing dissipated.
August Hoen
A. Hoen & Co.A. Hoen & Co.
A. Hoen & Co. was a Baltimore, Maryland-based lithography firm founded by Edward Weber in the 1840s as E. Weber & Company. When August Hoen took it over following Weber's death, he changed the name and built the company into one of the most prominent in the industry at the time.In 1877, Hoen...
, led by German immigrant August Hoen, were a prominent lithography house now known primarily for its stunning E.T. Paull sheet music covers. They also made advertisements, maps, and cigar box art. Hoen and his brothers Henry and Ernest took over the E. Weber Company in the mid 1850s upon Edward Weber's death. August Hoen's son Alfred ran the firm from 1886 throughout the early 20th century.
Rufus Bliss
Rufus Bliss founded R. Bliss Mfg. Co., which was located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island from 1832-1914.The Bliss company is best known for their highly sought after paper litho on wood dollhouses. They also made many other lithoed toys, including boats, trains, and building blocks.
M. & N. Hanhart
Established in Mulhouse in 1830 by Michael Hanhart who initially worked with Godefroy Engelmann in London. The firm, established at Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, was named after his two sons Michael and Nicholas. Artists like Joseph Wolf, Joseph Smit, J G Keulemans and others worked for him to produce natural history illustrations that were used in the Ibis (1859-1874), Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1848-1900) and a range of books. The company wound up in 1902 after the death of Nicholas Hanhart and the rise of new printing techniques.Uses
Offset printing
Offset printing is a commonly used printing technique in which the inked image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface...
replaced chromolithography in the late 1930s.
To find or purchase a lithograph, some suggest searching for examples with the original frame as well as the publisher's stamp. Both European and American chromolithographs can still be found, and can range in cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars. The least expensive chromos tend to be European or produced by publishers who are less well-known compared to Prang.
Lithography
Lithography is a form of planographic printingPlanographic printing
Planographic printing means printing from a flat surface, as opposed to a raised surface or incised surface . Lithography and offset lithography are planographic processes that utilize the property that water will not mix with oil. The image is applying a to a plate or stone...
, meaning that the surface is flat, in contrast to relief print
Relief print
A relief print is an image created by a printmaking process where protruding surface faces of the matrix are inked; recessed areas are ink free. Printing the image is therefore a relatively simple matter of inking the face of the matrix and bringing it in firm contact with the paper...
ing (using a raised surface) or intaglio
Intaglio (printmaking)
Intaglio is a family of printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface, known as the matrix or plate, and the incised line or area holds the ink. Normally, copper or zinc plates are used as a surface, and the incisions are created by etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint or...
printing (using an incised surface). The earliest lithographic prints were produced using Bavarian limestones from the Solenhofen quarry, where Senefelder himself had acquired his surface material. In order to create colored lithographic prints, printers made a series of impressions from different stones, each impression in register. The earliest chromolithographs relied on distinctive deposits of color ("side-by-side" printing). Rapidly, printers enhanced their palettes by overprinting colors. Stippling, intermingling dots of color much as the pointillist
Pointillism
Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works...
painters did, supplied a third mode of early chromolithographic printing that relied on optical color mixing. The use of lightweight zinc sheets—a process that came to be called zincography
Zincography
Zincography was a planographic printing process that used zinc plates. Alois Senefelder first mentioned zinc's lithographic use as a substitute for Bavarian limestone in his 1801 English patent specifications . In 1834, the Frenchman Breugnot patented a zincographic printing process, producing...
—eventually replaced the heavier and more expensive limestones. Offset printing
Offset printing
Offset printing is a commonly used printing technique in which the inked image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface...
superseded chromolithography around the 1930s, yet stone and metal plate lithography continue to be used by artists in the production of fine arts posters and limited edition prints.
Further reading
- Friedman, Joan M. Color Printing in England, 1486-1870: an Exhibition, Yale Center for British Art. New Haven: The Center, 1978.
- Hunter, Mel. The New Lithography: A Complete Guide for Artists and Printers in the Use of Modern Translucent Materials for the Creation of Hand-Drawn Original Fine-Art Lithographic Prints. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984.
- Marzio, Peter C. "Lithography as Democratic Art: A Reappraisal." Leonardo 3(1971):37-48.
See also
- Planography
- PhotochromPhotochromPhotochrom"Photochrom" is the spelling used by the Library of Congress, for historical reasons, in its classification and description of its collection of such images. Variants of the spelling exist, both in English and in German. "Photochrome" is the English spelling used in some contexts, e.g....
- Color printingColor printingColor printing or Colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color...
- ZincographyZincographyZincography was a planographic printing process that used zinc plates. Alois Senefelder first mentioned zinc's lithographic use as a substitute for Bavarian limestone in his 1801 English patent specifications . In 1834, the Frenchman Breugnot patented a zincographic printing process, producing...
- History of graphic designHistory of graphic designGraphics are the production of visual statements on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, pottery, computer screen, paper, stone or landscape. It includes everything that relates to creation of signs, charts, logos, graphs, drawings, line art, symbols, geometric designs and so on...
External links
- Examples of the Liebig's Company trade cards
- New York Public Library page on printing, includes an example in which 38 progressive proof prints are made with 19 stones to produce the final print.
- Temple University Libraries discussion and World War IWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
poster examples. - University of South Florida Tampa Library Special Collections maintains the Noel Wisdom Collection of Chromolithographic Prints.
- Chromolithography: The Art of Color from The Philadelphia Print Shop