Litografia

An Introduction to Lithography

Lithography is based on the principle that water and grease will naturally repel each other. An image is drawn with grease-containing media onto a plate or stone, and this greasy image attracts the oil-based printing ink that is rolled over and transferred to paper after running through the press.

Of all the printmaking techniques, lithography most closely resembles a drawing, whether that be made by pencil, charcoal, or pen and ink.

Discovered at the end of the 1700s by Alois Senefelder, who sought an economical alternative to printing with expensive copper plates, the abundant supply of Bavarian limestone provided the alternative print surface for this new technique. Lithography began to be adopted for artistic and commercial printing due to its economy and accuracy. Publishers found lithography allowed for a wider range of publications to reach a larger audience, and romantic painters such as Delacroix adored it for its direct expression and interesting shifts of tone and drama.

Colour imagery arrived with the work of Godefroy Engelmann, developing chromolithography in 1836. It proved effective and inexpensive and continued to be popular. With innovations made by Toulouse-Lautrec, later that century, colour lithography reached a much higher level of consistency and expression. Artists still work today in the same manner as Alois Senefelder, alongside inevitable innovations in this evolving art form.

In this section you will find inks and drawing media from the world's leading specialist manufacturers, as well as essentials for the studio.