REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1924 113 



ginnings, followed by two beautiful original Rembrandts. Twenty- 

 three other dry points are shown, the work of the following artists, 

 the majority of the prints being recent accessions: Benjamin C. 

 Brown, Howell C. Brown, F. S. Church (1842-1924), John W. Cot- 

 ton, Auguste Delatre (1822-1907), George O. Hart, George E. Resler, 

 Margery Ryerson, Will Simmons, Walter Tittle, Charles A. Vander- 

 hoof, Frederick Weber, and J. Alden Weir (1852-1919). 



The next subject is that concerning aquatint. 



Aquatint is used to imitate water color washes, and in connection 

 with both line and soft ground and for both one color and full color 

 printing. There are two methods of laying the ground, a dry and 

 a wet. In the dry method, powdered rosin or asphaltum is sprin- 

 kled over the plate and attached by heating. In the wet method, 

 rosin dissolved in alcohol is poured over the plate ; upon the evapo- 

 ration of the alcohol, the rosin crackles, leaving the metal exposed 

 in a network of cracks. The size of the cracks is governed by the 

 proportions, the more rosin the wider the cracks'. The next step 

 is to paint, with stopping out varnish, the parts of the plate that 

 are to print white. The remainder of the plate is now etched for 

 the lightest tones. It is then removed from the acid and dried and 

 the parts which have been sufficiently bitten are protected with 

 stopping out varnish from further action of the acid in subsequent 

 bitings. The procedure is the same for each value and it is re- 

 peated until all the desired values are in the plate, so that when 

 it is printed, the tones will be from white to black and resemble 

 water-color washes. 



Many discoveries are simply rediscoveries. Jean-Baptiste Le- 

 Prince (1733-1781), the French painter, has been given the credit 

 for the invention of the process, and probably was the first one to use 

 it extensively. His first aquatint is dated 1768. A. M. Hind, in the 

 Print Collector's Quarterly, December, 1921, shows that there were 

 aquatints by a Jan Van de Velde, which date about 1650, and others 

 by Gerhard Janssen (1680-1725) and one by William Sherwin (died 

 about 1710). In England Paul Sandby (1721-1809) worked exten- 

 sively in this medium and is often credited with introducing it there. 

 In the previously mentioned article Mr. Hind shows that P. P. Bur- 

 dett, of Liverpool, produced an aquatint plate in 1771, and informed 

 Sandby as to the method. Sandby's first aquatint appeared in 1775. 

 In 1776 he invented the wet method. Since that time these methods 

 have been used extensively. 



In aquatint in line method " touching stuff " 1 is used with water 

 to paint the design over the aquatint ground. When this is dry the 



1 Touching stuff is composed of burnt cork, whiting, lampblack mixed with molasses, 

 and a little ox-gall. 



