The New Neutrals

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...

Lesley Anne Spowart, an abstract artist hailing from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is renowned for her transformative creations that blur the boundaries of mediums and styles. With a di...

Limited edition lithograph on Arches paper from edition of 2,000 of "La Revue Blanche" by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Reproduction reissued in 1974. Th...

Title: Sunchasers Painting Animal Dog Modern Gold Contemporary Striking Invest Bold Classic Joy Original One-of-a-kind This painting forms part of an artwork series called BLUE. I ...

Louis Icart, After, French (1888 - 1950) - Coursing 3, Medium: Offset Lithograph on paper, signed in plate, Image Size: 14.5 x 23.75 inches, Size: 16 x 25 in. (40.64 x 63.5 cm), D...

Lesley Anne Spowart, an abstract artist hailing from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is renowned for her transformative creations that blur the boundaries of mediums and styles. With a di...

Emile BERCHMANS Renewal Original lithograph Printed signature in the plate 1897/98 Printed on paper Vélin Size 40 x 31 cm (c. 16 x 12") INFORMATION : Published by 'Estampe Modern...

A man raises his hand to his chin, his neck tilted and face turned to look at a dilapidated farmhouse, barely held together by planks of wood and exposed to the elements. Behind him ...

Louis Icart, French (1888 - 1950) - Silk Robe, Medium: Offset Lithograph on paper, signed in plate, Image Size: 17.5 x 21.5 inches, Size: 19 x 22.5 in. (48.26 x 57.15 cm), Descrip...

“Mozart en France” – Original French Exhibition 1956 Poster, Linen-Backed. Grade A- condition, ready to frame. Fold marks restored. A striking, authentic mid-century poster creat...

These beautiful and colorful lithographic posters were hand reproduced by the Mourlot Studio's Master Printer Henri Deschamps in 1969. They are not to be mistaken with later cheap digital and giclée reproductions. Ed. 1,500 In December of 1894, Mucha visited a print shop contracted to create a new advertising poster for a play featuring Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress in Paris at the time. Mucha volunteered to produce a lithographic poster within two weeks, and on January 1, 1895, the advertisement for the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou was posted in the city, where it attracted much attention. Bernhardt was so satisfied with the success of this first poster that she signed a six-year contract with the artist. Written by Alexandre Dumas (son) when he was 23 years old, and first published in 1848, "La Dame aux Camélias...

These beautiful and colorful lithographic posters were hand reproduced by the Mourlot Studio's Master Printer Henri Deschamps in 1969. They are not to be mistaken with later cheap di...