Leon R. Pescheret: Color Etcher

Those of us who come from Europe and have the privilege of becoming citizens of this great country find its beauty and size astounding when compared to our homelands. In the east, where certain parts of Maine and Vermont strongly resemble Scotland, or in the New England States where, again, the European similarity and influence is in evidence, the change is not so startling; but out West especially here in Arizona a country is found so vast, so beautifully different, that there is no possible association with any European background.

This was the essential fact which fascinated me most on my first and subsequent trips here. The topography of the land, the coloring and structure of its vegetation and mountains -not to mention cloud formations and sunsets give to the artist a new approach to usual problems. Cacti plants and flowers have a different structure from other plants and the flowers invariably give one the impression that they are attached to and not a part of them, for it seems incredible that such unattractive vegetation can produce such colorful blooms and in such variety. But the greatest change one feels when coming from the East is in the coloring of the landscape and sky, not to mention the dress of native Indians. I found it almost impossible to reproduce on paper the colors of our blue sky with ordinary pigment, and soon found that it was necessary to eliminate all neutral color from the palette to accomplish this purpose. Even the mountains have a coloring at early morning or late in the evening that requires endless study to reproduce.

A brief sketch of the craftsmanship necessary to produce the color etchings may be opportune at this point before anything is said of the subject matter.

The prints designated in this article are genuine "color etchings" and not "colored etchings." The difference is simple. Color etchings are actually printed in color by hand with colored inks, whereas colored etchings are printed in one color black, grey, brown or even blue and tinted afterwards. Discounting the artistic value of such colored prints, colored etchings have no accumulative value and the craftsman who does this type of work does so usually because he knows nothing of color etchings.

Of course there are many who still think of etchings only in terms of monochrome prints and who look upon the introduction of color to the final result in the medium as superfluous and artificial. In justice to this point of view it may be said that when a line technique of pure etching is employed the contention has a sound basis. It is well known that a line bitten into a sheet of metal has no appreciable breadth and only a possible depth quality. If this line is filled with red instead of black ink, the impression obtained in printing from it will be most disappointing, for it would give only a dark line in very indistinct coloring, or the reverse if a light ink is used, a weak, thin line will result, both in color and effect. In other words, no real color will be obtained, only a feeble tonal tint of the intended color. Color is best achieved through an additional technique which, in itself, will produce on the copper plate a definite tonal mass and texture for the area which is to receive a color ink.

Color etchings, let it be said, are not new, experimental or the fad of the day. Most of them, to be sure, have been produced in Europe, but there they have a long history. Actually it was the desire of the early European copper plate etchers always experimenting with color printing, that led to the discoveries which eventually produced the method and machines necessary to our modern and commercial color reproductions.

The first to try color etching of which we have any proof was Joyannes Teyler, a Hollander, who in 1680 made a series of prints, using two plates, one for brown and the other for a color ink. Although these plates were etched in pure line technique, the result was weak and most unsatisfactory and the trial was finally abandoned.

It was Isaac Newton's theory of light and color, in which he established that all colors and tonal tints are made up of the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue which gave Jacob Christofer Le Blon the basis for his invention of color printing. Realizing that he must arrive at a tonal rather than a line method of holding color on the copper plate, Le Blon originated the technique now known as mezzotint. He then made plates, one to carry the red ink, one to hold yellow and the third for the blue pigment. These, when superimposed on the same sheet of paper and printed produced a color picture in all the colors of the spectrum. But it was too slow and restricted a process for commercial purposes and so was practiced by very few artists.

In 1650 the Dutch engraver, Jean Lutma, invented a process to take the place of mezzotinting for tonal quality by covering a copper plate with a multitude of small holes, made with an awl and hammer. If these were sufficiently close together they would, when inked and printed, give the vitally necessary tonal quality for color printing. This process was the forerunner of what is now known as "aquatint."

In 1760 J. B. Le Prince finally invented the resin ground process, which has since been developed mechanically and which enables one to give to a metal plate a color printing quality. It is a technique which can be applied to a plate, either by hand for infinite variety or by our modern science of photography.

During the eighteenth century this discovery gave impetus to the production of work in the new medium, and some exceptionally beautiful color prints, now in our museums, testify to the result. But so perfect did the technique of this process become that it lost its charm and vitality as an artistic expression and only reflected the skill of the craftsman.

It was Raffaelli who did much to prove the artistic possibilities of this medium. Instead of using the three or more plate process, he began making color etchings from one plate, which obliterated, to a large extent, the temptation to become the expert craftsman rather than the creative artist. As far as techniques are concerned, the two processes used on one plate are fundamentally identical and in harmony. The plate is etched in line to hold the related parts of the design together and afterwards aquatinted to hold the color overtones. Naturally the one plate method has countless limitations not found in multiple plate work, as does any given technique. For one thing, instead of working from a basis of three primary colors to obtain the full scale of color range desired, one must use the particular color pigment which will reproduce the intended colors on the finished print.

During the past fifty years color etchings have attracted the attention of such men and women as J. F. Raffaelli, F. Bracquemond, Auguste Lepere, Mary Cassett, Marie Laurencin, Max Pollack, T. F. Simon, Luigi Kasimir and Elbert Burr, to mention only a few.

So much for the origin and brief history of color etching. There will always be those who are not interested in this medium. But, to maintain that it is an illegitimate means of visual expression, or that it has no permanent value, is to deny the value of any tool, material or method which, in the hands of a true artist, can be so employed and controlled as to achieve a visual statement and effect not otherwise possible.

Twelve years ago, when I decided to devote most of my time to the production of color etchings, I returned to Europe and on the continent worked and studied with most of the modern masters of the day. I found, however, that they used the process mainly to copy water colors or oil paintings. In other words, they worked entirely in aquatint, which completely effaced the appearance of etchings. Now the charm of an etching is the predominant line work or delineation which forms the basic method by which an etching is made, and I could not become reconciled to the attitude that the only excuse for the color etching craft was to use it as a method to acquire multiple reproductions of another picture. It seemed to me that a manner of operation could be devised by which a color print could be made which would retain a line drawing appearance, even though it had an embellishment of color.

After several months of extensive experiments this goal, to some extent, was achieved, as shown by the accompanying illustrations, which are but a small portion of my collection.

The basic starting point is a colored sketch made on location with colored crayons. When back in the studio the work is started much in the same manner used in the making of a monochrome print. When the size of the copper plate has been decided upon, the edges are bevelled with a file, the surface thoroughly cleaned, the plate heated and a wax coating, or as it is usually called "a ground," put over the entire plate. Then from the sketches in front of him the artist starts to compose the final subject that is to be the color etching on the waxed plate. The aquatint method is rarely used to create the tonal quality of the etching necessary to retain the color values of the composition. The artist prefers to do this by a countless series of very broken lines wherever necessary. This keeps the plate from having a painted appearance. It must be realized that it takes days and even weeks to design and etch the copper plate to produce the finished work, for of necessity it must go through many stages, especially cleaning off the wax to print the plate in order to judge the extent of the work, then recoating the same plate to complete the composition.

When the final etching has been made and the plate considered completed, a trial proof is made. The artist now makes and sets out on a marble slab all the various colored inks he intends to use, then with a small piece of tarlton wrapped around his index finger he rubs into the plate the colored ink intended for that portion of the design, remembering that it is not how much ink is put on the copper plate surface that matters, but rather the amount that can be forced down into the engraving. Then with another clean cloth the surplus ink is removed from that spot and the next color is added. This procedure is repeated over and over until the entire plate is inked. The plate is now ready to be printed and is placed on the bed of the hand press, a sheet of dampened paper is placed over it, the press turned so the heavy rollers squeeze the paper onto the plate, and thus a color etching is produced.

One of the things that few people realize is that the plate must be reinked over again to produce another print, and that once a print is taken off the press no alteration or additions may be made to correct it. In other words, a satisfactory proof must be pulled every time. These prints are then placed between blotters and under weight to be dried flat and after several days, dependent on atmospheric conditions, they are taken out, carefully examined for defects not evident in the printing process and, if found satisfactory, signed, numbered and mounted. Etchings of all kinds are generally issued in editions, the number being at the discretion of the artist; and it stands to reason that the smaller the edition the higher the market price.