Etchings and engravings

Rembrandt, the Hundred Guilder Print all prints this page courtesy artrenewal.org Americas largest online museum

When a week ago I wrote about prints original and otherwise, I was intending that post to be a segue into writing about etching. I got sidelined for a while on the subject of pricing, and I will happily return to that, but I like to change things up a bit here. I rotate through various subjects and I felt like things were slowing down a little. Hence a new subject. Something about which I think artists should know, etching.

Painters have often done etching as a sideline and it is a grand art tradition that isn't getting its due anymore. When we see (or say) "print' today we think lithography or mass market silkscreens. There was a time when that meant a handmade product, either an etching, an engraving or a woodblock print. I am going to, for now, concentrate on etchings.

An etching is an intaglio, that is it is printed from a plate that holds the ink in lines incised INTO its surface. Often times etchings are confused with engravings, here is an engraving below, by William Hogarth.

An engraving also is printed from a plate bearing the ink in lines incised into its surface however the lines in an engraving are cut into the plate with a sharp tool called a burin. It takes a steady hand, and is often the job of a craftsman rather than an artist. In the 19th century engravers made plates to illustrate newspapers and famous art was known more from the engravings made of it, than the original art itself. A dollar bill is an example of an engraving

The lines holding the ink on an etching plate are "bitten" into its surface by the action of an acid. Because of this they can be very delicate and very expressive. Traditionally etchings are done on copper, but zinc is also commonly used. Because the copper is soft, as impressions are "pulled" from the plate, it wears. That means that an etching really is part of a limited edition, only so many can be made before the plate no longer yields a fine impression. Engravings, typically done on steel, allow nearly limitless prints to be made, but they don't give the fine artistic look of an etching.

Etchings yield a soft velvety black and allow the use of fine incredibly delicate individual lines. Because they are black and white and have those qualities, historically etchers have concerned themselves with design and effective SPOTTING, that is, the arrangement of areas of darks within their images. The history of etching is the history of fine designers. I draw your attention to etching because it is a place to go to see great design. I will continue with this series of posts tomorrow by walking you through the method by which an etching is made.