Drypoint Still-life Prints

Leonard Merchant's mezzotint, "Snail in Cup" is inscribed for fellow artist, Fritz Eichenberg. While a student at the Central School for Arts and Crafts in London, a young Leonard Marchant found an engraving rocker in a cupboard and proceeded to turn himself into a master of the painstaking art of mezzotinting. Marchant, who has died in Shrewsbury aged 70, grew up in Simonstown, the Royal Navy's enclave in South Africa. Though his first job was as a parliamentary messenger, he taught himself to paint and, aged 19, was given a one-man show in Cape Town. Fired by this success, he left for England to study painting and, he claimed, to escape the stifling home atmosphere created by his Catholic mother and aunts. (His father was killed in the second world war.) Without contacts in London, he phoned Jacob Epstein, whose recommendation resulted in a grant to study briefly at the Central School. It was later, when studying full-time at the Central, that he saw the mezzotints of the Japanese master, Yozo Hamaguchi, in a London gallery. He was hooked. Creating a mezzotint is tedious in the extreme. The copper plate must first be prepared with a "rocker" which roughens the surface. A plate may be "rocked" 30 or 40 times. The rough texture is then reduced with a burnisher and a scraper, allowing the print a range of tones from velvety black through the greys to white. Marchant's plates could be months in the making. But the technical demands were the least of his worries. In its 18th- and 19th-century heyday, mezzotint was solely a reproductive medium, for copying masters such as Reynolds and Turner. The development of photography rendered it unfashionable, and by the 1960s the technique, known as la manière anglaise, was a bygone medium. Marchant, by now a teacher in printmaking at the Central, began to create original mezzotints with a colleague, Radavan Kraguly. A perfectionist, he seemed to revel in the straitjacket procedure. Perhaps it was the metaphor of bringing darkness out of light that appealed to this straight-talking, sometimes sombre, man, who would suddenly relax and light up like a gleaming hue on one of his prints. His work was of squares and triangles with the occasional cat, black and ominous, and carefully arranged still lifes, featuring plants, a seed pod, a pot he might have bought at auction to celebrate the sale of a print. There were one-man shows, notably at the Bankside Gallery. He sold well at the Royal Academy summer exhibition, was a Florence Biennale prizewinner, spent a fellowship year at the British School in Rome, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. But making mezzotints was not a paying job. Marchant and his South African wife...

[ Bird of Paradise] La Pie de paradise, vue par derriere , No.21, Paris 1801-1806 [Astrapia nigra]. Color-printed engraving with hand-coloring. French botanical and zoological illustrator Jacques Barraband (1767-1809) was known as one of the finest ornithological artists of his time .He is best known for his watercolors and engravings that were commissioned by François LeVaillant, French explorer, naturalist, zoological collector , noted ornithologist and author. Levaillant’s Histoire naturelle des perroquets (1801-05) and his Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis (Birds of Paradise, 1801-06), both of which Barraband contributed to, are still considered some of the most beautiful bird books of all times because of their exceptional scientific accuracy, rich color and detail. The Astrapia nigra is a Bird of Paradise that inhabits the Vogelkop Peninsula of West Papua...

Python is a hand-pulled mezzotint in an edition of 25. This is #7/25. Jacob Crook was born in St. Louis, MO in 1985. Crook works primarily in the intagli...

Izzy, a charming characterful terrier stands alert, holding her ball in her mouth. Colour etching hand made and printed by the artist. Helen Fay's art for sale online and in our gallery at Wychwood Art. Animals have always been at the heart of my work. I find the form, movement and behaviour of the creatures I draw a source of limitless fascination. I love the idea of them watching me, watching them as I draw. I hope my appreciation of the sentience and character of the animals I draw comes across in my work. Over my career I have drawn everything from primates to penguins, dogs, ostriches and even an echidna. These days dogs are my main focus, mostly because I adore dogs but also because they are such an integral part of life. I am delighted by the theory that humans and dogs co evolved, we wouldn’t be what we are without them and vice versa. I try to pare my images down to a balanced simplicity that directs attention to the subject of the picture. I try to balance the subject and the space it occupies, giving each equal importance. Light is hugely important to my work, I imagine my subject in three dimensions as I draw and the light describes the musculature and texture that gives the drawing it’s presence and grounds it in the picture. I aim to capture a pause, a moment where whatever I draw looks like it could wander off or leap up any minute. My influences include Japanese prints, Chinese and Japanese brush drawing and the European artists who were influenced by Japan. I am really excited by composition, by artists like Bonnard and Leon Spilliaert. I have long been a fan of Munch for his direct mark-making, colour and intensity and at the other end of the spectrum, Hammershoi for his limited palette, sense of space and calm. I am interested in black and white photography and film and have recently discovered and been amazed by the films of Yasujiro Ozu...

This is a hand-colored copperplate engraving entitled "Tulipa viridiscoloris, Fritillaria iuncifolns, Allium Vrsinum" depicting flowering tulip, fritillary and wild garlic plants fro...

A hand-colored engraving of yellow trumpet flowers from Sir Joseph Paxton's (1803-1865) "Magazine of Botany and Register of Flowering Plants", published in 1834. This engraving entit...

Amsterdam VI is an intriguing early career aquatint dry-needle etch print by renowned French-Dutch artist Olivier Julia. It depicts a detail of an old Amsterdam house facade is both ...

Amsterdam III is an intriguing early career aquatint dry-needle etch print by renowned French-Dutch artist Olivier Julia. It depicts a detail of an old Amsterdam house facade is both...

This 17th century hand-colored engraving of a lemon entitled "Limon Straitus Amalphitanus" is Plate 249 from Giovanni Baptista Ferrari's publication "Hesperides, sive, De Malorum Aur...

Artist: Will Mentor, American (1958 - ) Title: Cubist Composition Year: 1990 Medium: Etching and Aquatint, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 13/75 Paper Size: 33.5 x 24 in. (8...

A hand-colored copper plate engraving depicting "Calendula prolifera; Calendula lutea flore pleno; Calendula lute medioruffa" flowers from Basilius Besler's landmark work, Hortus Eys...

Amsterdam V is an intriguing early career aquatint dry-needle etch print by renowned French-Dutch artist Olivier Julia. It depicts a detail of an old Amsterdam house facade is both a...