Chromolithography

Chromolithography is a chemical process. The process is based on the rejection of water by grease. The image is applied to stone, grained zinc or aluminium surfaces, with a grease-based crayon or ink. Limestone and zinc are two commonly used materials in the production of chromolithographs, as aluminium corrodes easily. After the image is drawn onto one of these surfaces, the image is gummed-up with a gum arabic solution and weak nitric acid to desensitize the surface. Before printing, the image is proved before finally inking up the image with oil based transfer or printing ink. In the direct form of printing, the inked image is transferred under pressure onto a sheet of paper using a flat-bed press. The offset indirect method uses a rubber-covered cylinder that transfers the image from the printing surface to the paper. Colours may be overprinted by using additional stones or plates to achieve a closer reproduction of the original. Accurate registration for multi-coloured work is achieved by the use of a key outline image and registration bars which are applied to each stone or plate before drawing the solid or tone image. Ben-Day medium uses a raised gelatin stipple image to give tone gradation. An air-brush sprays ink to give soft edges. These are just two methods used to achieve gradations of tone. The use of twelve overprinted colours would not be considered unusual. Each sheet of paper will therefore pass through the printing press as many times as there are colours in the final print. In order that each colour is placed in the right position, each stone or plate must be precisely 'registered,' or lined up, on the paper using a system of register marks.[2]

Chromolithographs are considered to be reproductions that are smaller than double demi, and are of finer quality than lithographic drawings which are concerned with large posters. Autolithographs are prints where the artist draws and perhaps prints his or her own limited number of reproductions. This is the true lithographic art form.[6]

Uncle Sam Supplying the World with Berry Brothers Hard Oil Finish, c. 1880. This cheaply produced chromolithographic advertisement employs a technique called stippling, with heavy reliance on the initial black line print.

Alois Senefelder, the inventor of lithography, introduced the subject of colored lithography in his 1818 Vollstaendiges Lehrbuch der Steindruckerey (A Complete Course of Lithography), where he told of his plans to print using colour and explained the colours he wished to be able to print someday.[7] Although Senefelder recorded plans for chromolithography, printers in other countries, such as France and England, were also trying to find a new way to print in colour. Godefroy Engelmann of Mulhouse in France was awarded a patent on chromolithography in July 1837,[7] 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 cards.[7]

1872 chromolithograph of roadside inn, published in Maryland

The first American chromolithograph—a portrait of Reverend F. W. P. Greenwood—was created by William Sharp in 1840.[8] Many of the chromolithographs were created and purchased in urban areas. The paintings were initially used as decoration in American parlours as well as for decoration within middle-class homes. They were prominent after the Civil War because of their low production costs and ability to be mass-produced, and because the methods allowed pictures to look more like hand-painted oil paintings.[9] 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.[10] Although chromos could be mass-produced, it took about three months to draw colours 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".[11] Over time, during the Victorian era, chromolithographs populated children's and fine arts publications, as well as advertising art, in trade cards, labels, and posters. They were also once used for advertisements, popular prints, and medical or scientific books.[12]

Even though chromolithographs served many uses within society at the time, many were opposed to the idea of them because of their perceived lack of authenticity. The new forms of art were sometimes tagged as "bad art" because of their deceptive qualities.[10] 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.[10] Over time, many chromos came to be made so cheaply that they could no longer be confused with original paintings. Since production costs were low, the fabrication of cheap chromolithographs became more a business than the creation of art, in contrast with the high quality chromolithographs targeted primarily at art-oriented audiences.

Folding Card, The Old Woman Who Lived in A Shoe, 6 April 1883.

Chromolithographs are mainly used today as fine art instead of advertisements, and they are hard to find because of poor preservation and cheaper forms of printing replaced it. Many chromolithographs have deteriorated because of the acidic frames surrounding them.[17] As stated earlier, production costs of chromolithographs were low, but efforts were still being made to find a cheaper and faster way to mass-produce colored prints. Although purchasing a chromolithograph may have been cheaper than purchasing a painting, it was still expensive in comparison to other colour printing methods which were later developed. Offset printing 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.[18] 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.[18]

• Twyman, Michael. A History of Chromolithography: Printed Colour for All. The British Library/Oak Knoll Press, 2013.
• Friedman, Joan M. Colour Printing in England, 1486-1859. Yale Center for British Art, 1978.
• Henker, Michael. Von Senefelder zu Daumier: Die Anfange der Lithograpischen Kunst. K.G. Saur, 1988.
• Jay, Robert. The Trade Card in Nineteenth-Century America. University of Missouri Press, 1987.
• Last, Jay T. The Colour Explosion: Nineteenth-Century American Lithography. Hillcrest Press, 2005.
• Marzio, Peter C. The Democratic Art : Pictures for a 19th-century America : Chromolithography, 1840-1900. D. R. Godine, 1979.

• Planography
• Photochrom
• Color printing
• Zincography
• History of graphic design
• Lithography
• William Griggs, 19th-century inventor of "photo-chromo-lithography"

• Friedman, Joan M. Colour 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.

Look up chromolithography in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chromolithographs.

• The Chromolithograph: A Journal of Arts, Literature, Decoration and the Accomplishments
• Examples of the Liebig's Company trade cards Commercial website
• New York Public Library page on printing Archived 2017-12-30 at the Wayback Machine, includes an example Archived 2017-12-30 at the Wayback Machine in which 38 progressive proof prints are made with 19 stones to produce the final print.
• Temple University Libraries discussion and World War I poster examples.
• University of South Florida Tampa Library Special Collections maintains the Noel Wisdom Collection of Chromolithographic Prints.
• Chromolithography: The Art of Color Archived 2012-05-13 at the Wayback Machine from The Philadelphia Print Shop
• Collection of Chromolithographic Prints of Edinburgh, Scotland, 1897 Archived 2017-12-29 at the Wayback Machine
• George Washington Chromolithograph