Images: (1) A screenshot from the MFA Boston's website about the Conservation up Close session (2) Top Center, Photo showing Fenna Engelke explaining engraving to the audience (3) Top Right, Fenna Engelke showing an example of dry point to the audience (4) Bottom Center, (5) Bottom Right,
With the opening of the Conservation Center at the MFA Boston, the conservations staff were invited to take part in some of the regular programming focused around conservation. The themes could be very broad and, as a fellow, I was encouraged to apply. The result was two ‘Closer Looking’ Sessions with the public focused on the introduction of intaglio techniques. (Which took place 23 February and 23 March). I was able to choose the objects that the public could view during my session and designed the 30-40 minute talk alongside a flier that the participants could take with them. The following post is a synopsis of the information provided at the event along with additional information about the pieces I chose to discuss .
Content and Setup
I wanted to have as much interaction as possible so alongside the prints I also had a table set apart from the art which had some of my own prints as well as copper plates and magnifiers which members of the public can touch and feel before moving on to look at the objects.
When choosing prints to show the public, I attempted to have examples of multiple intaglio techniques. I tried to get a variety of artists and get a few niche examples as well.
Image: (7) A detail from Adoration of the Shepherds by Hendrick Goltzius’ (1558-1617) (8) A detail from Adoration of the Shepherds by Hendrick Goltzius’ (1558-1617) () A detail from Adoration of the Shepherds by Hendrick Goltzius’ (1558-1617) () A detail from The Raising of Lazarus by Rembrandt () A further detail of the etched lines in The Raising of Lazarus by Rembrandt
For engraving I had chosen two states of Adoration of the Shepherds (1617) by Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) .
There were a few reasons for choosing this print. Along with Goltzius’ work being a great example of engraving, having two versions of the image also allows me to introduce the concepts of ‘states’ to the audience and talk about the intaglio printmaking process.
For etching I had to bring out Rembrandt (1606-1669). The MFA Boston is lucky to have two intaglio plates from Rembrandt and so I decided to choose a print that related to one of the plates in the collection. While The Raising of Lazarus (1642) is not my favorite print from Rembrandt, having the chance to see a print next to its original printing plate is a bit of a treat and the recognizable name of Rembrandt always draws some heads from the general public that join the closer looking sessions.
So far I had brought out two master printmakers but for the rest of the talk I wanted to move forward in time a bit. When introducing dry-point, I brought out a later print. La Modiste (The Milliner) by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859-1923) was introduced to me by one of the Prints and Drawing curators for a very particular reason.
La Modiste (The Milliner) uses dry-point, resulting in the creation of burrs made from the copper being moved on the plate. What is unique about this piece is that the burrs on the plate were so severe that the resulting print has little punctures in the paper from the burrs. I have never seen something like this before (and so please contact me if you have seen anything similar to this happening) and so I find this a phenomenal piece to look at and such a rare find.
Image: () A detail from In the Omnibus by Mary Cassatt () A detail from In the Omnibus by Mary Cassatt () A detail from At the Zoological Gardens by Felix Bracquemond () A detail from At the Zoological Gardens by Felix Bracquemond () A detail from At the Zoological Gardens by Felix Bracquemond () A detail from At the Zoological Gardens by Felix Bracquemond
I had a few things I wanted to show when it came to inducing aquatinting. Along with showing the technique I also wanted to show a lot of color intaglio prints. I think that because of the prevalence of black ink intaglio prints, there is an assumption that intaglio is not done in color. I wanted to show a few great pieces in our collection that show off the possibilities for color intaglio prints. For this reason I pulled two prints. One is Mary Cassatt’s In the Omnibus. Mary Cassatt’s intaglio work is a marvelous example of what can be done with intaglio while working in color. There’s also a very Japanese-woodblock quality to her printed work, created by the use of strong fields of color used within her work. The second print I pulled to show aquatinting was Félix Bracquemond’s At the Zoological Gardens which similarly uses a multi-plate, multi-color technique. Bracquemond’s work is an exploration of what can be done with intaglio printing and was even shown in the same exhibit as some of Mary Cassatt’s work at one time. The aquatinting in the print At the Zoological Gardens has a larger pattern which is easier to see by the viewer. This rosin pattern from the aquatinting therefore makes it a great example for the closer-looking session. There’s a slight registration issue with the print and allows for discussion about registration and about multi-plate printing in intaglio.
Images: () Detail from The Umbrella from Mary Cassatt () Detail from The Umbrella from Mary Cassatt () Verso of the Drawing for The Umbrella. The verso of the drawing shows remains of softground on the paper, showing that Cassatt drew from the drawing directly onto the soft ground.
When talking about soft ground, I brought out another Mary Cassatt print, The Umbrella. While I do love Mary Cassatt’s work, I didn’t necessarily want more than one piece of from Cassatt in the lecture. That being said, I decided to use this work because the MFA also has the corresponding drawing for this piece. The great thing about the drawing is that is has soft-ground on the back of the paper, showing how Cassatt used her drawing to impress into the soft-ground and create the resulting print. Having these two objects was such a great way to look into artist working methods while introducing the technique of soft-ground.
The last intaglio technique I wanted to talk about was mezzotint. Created by first ‘rocking’ the plate with the rocker tool, the plate would then be burnished to create a beautifully toned image, achieving great fields of blacks when printed. These prints take quite a lot of time to create and when mezzotinting had its hay-day it was used extensively to create portraits.
In this case, however, I wanted to move away from the historical portraits and chose to show the more modern image of From an Office Window by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (1889-1946). This allowed us to view less traditional imagery while also seeing the texture created by the rocker on the plate.
Almost, but not included
One of the prints I had wanted to include was St. Catherine by Jacob Christoph Le Blon (1667-1741) as an example of mezzotint as well as another example of color intaglio printing. Le Blon’s intaglio work is a great show of what can be possible with color intaglio printing. His work, along with others, was part of a great effort by many artists at this time to create realistic color imaging for publications, particularly for the recreation of paintings. Le Blon applied the three-color, and sometimes four-color, method to mezzotint plates; a concept that many of us are familiar with thanks to photography and modern CMY printing, but done before its time. In the case of the At Catherine print, the paper has been cut down to the image, loosing the plate marks, which was likely intentional to obscure any evidence of misregistration or stray ink. The reason why this method didn’t take off might have to do with how extremely time consuming and therefore expensive it must have been to create such images for publication. All the same, the prints that resulted are amazing in their use of color as well as scale. The print at the MFA, St. Catherine, is their only Le Bon print but is also quite large in size, measuring at 61.3 x 44.7 cm (24 1/8 x 17 5/3 inches). The size posed an issue to transport and show to the public and so I decided to not include it for these sessions but if given an opportunity to do this lecture again I would love to give the public an opportunity to see it in person.
Images: () St. Catherine by Jacob Christoph Le Blon (1667-1741), (-) Details from St. Catherine by Jacob Christoph Le Blon
Bibliography and Further Reading
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