_PHOTOGRAVURE AND PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHY, ETC._
These processes or methods of reproduction are the outcome of the
endeavour to supersede the artist and engraver. They are quite
mechanical, or should be; in fact the less evidence there is of any
intervention on the part of the operator or maker of a photographic
plate, the better it will be for the work which is being reproduced;
still, if an artist turns his attention to these processes, the finest
results are obtained, even though he must completely efface himself in
the work. M. Amand Durand made the best photogravures ever produced
because he was an artist. No mere photographic or mechanical engraver
ever approached him.
The theory of photogravure and photo-lithography, in the best work, is
the same as that of photo-engraving, which is described in a previous
Lecture. In photogravure a photograph of a drawing is usually made on
a sensitised copper plate; this is coated with some acid-resisting
varnish, but when the varnished plate is washed with water or some
acid, the varnish covering the picture on the plate comes away,
leaving the picture on the bare copper. This is then bitten in exactly
the same way as an etching, the success of the plate depending
entirely on the artistic intelligence of the person who does the
biting. Or else the photographic print is made on the varnish itself
just exactly in the same way as for a zinc block; only in this case
the picture is washed away and not the surrounding portions; the
biting is then proceeded with.
There are also many other processes of photogravure, while heliotype,
autotype, Woodbury-type, collotype, are closely allied to it. The word
type is probably used simply because by none of these methods can the
plates be used with letterpress. All these processes, however, are
very complicated, require expensive machinery, are quite outside the
field of art, most secret, and, except theoretically, of little
importance to you.
A good photogravure, for example, by Amand Durand or Ch. Dujardin is
often a most excellent reproduction of a line-drawing or an
etching--so good, in fact, as to be almost indistinguishable from an
etching. But to endeavour to palm off pen drawings as etchings, when
they have been reproduced in some such way, is to act the part of a
common swindler.
Photo-lithography is exactly the same as photo-zincography--process
block-making. The drawing is photographed on to transfer paper,
covered with lithographic ink and transferred to the stone like any
other lithograph. This is a mechanical process; there are a number of
ways of getting the drawing on to the stone, and the results are
described under many names. Collotypes and other varieties of
photographic prints are made from gelatine or other films; they
require expensive machines to produce, they are all mechanical
processes which you could not readily use unless you went into the
business, and are quite outside your art.
One is being continually shown processes which are going to
revolutionise engraving and incidentally do away with the artist; this
has not yet been accomplished. But just as one sees to-day the
momentary triumph of the photographer--or rather of the person who is
exploiting the poor photographer--one may remember that chromos have
not annihilated painting, nor can the photograph ever be anything more
than a useful aid to illustration.