The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (276 page)

line engraving
.

Term applied to a method of making prints (and the print so made) in which the design is cut directly into the surface of a metal (usually copper) plate. In normal parlance the term
engraving
usually refers to line engraving, but strictly the former is a generic term, covering a variety of processes (see
PRINT
). The line engraver cuts the design into a smooth metal plate with a tool called a
burin
. Characteristically, line engravings have a quality of metallic hardness and austere precison, compared with the easy, spontaneous drawing of the
etcher
or
lithographer
. The essential nature of the medium is linear, though shading and tone may be suggested by parallel strokes, cross-
hatching
, or textures compounded of various dots and flicks. Line engraving seems to have originated towards the middle of the 15th cent. in the workshops of goldsmiths, arising independently in Italy (see
NIELLO
) and Germany, though perhaps slightly earlier in the latter country. Martin
Schongauer
, who died in 1491, was the first major artist to work mainly as an engraver, and the medium had its finest flowering in the early 16th cent. in the work of Albrecht
Dürer
and
Lucas van Leyden
. Active at the same time was Marcantonio
Raimondi
, who was the great pioneer in the use of engraving as a means of reproducing the works of other artists. This soon became the primary function of line engraving, and it was the principal method of reproductive printing until the 19th cent., when it was challenged by
wood engraving
in the popular market and then superseded by photomechanical processes. In the 20th cent., however, line engraving has been revived as a means of original expression, the most important impetus coming from S. W.
Hayter
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1792–1882).
English painter. He made his reputation and his fortune as a fashionable portraitist and
miniaturist
, but was devoted to landscape painting. His wealth enabled him to patronize
Blake
, and some of his early landscapes have something of the visionary quality of the master and of Samuel
Palmer
, who married Linnell's daughter. In 1852 he settled in Redhill and most of his prolific output thereafter was devoted to idyllic scenes in Surrey, done in a lush and more conventional pastoral idiom than his early work. Such works were highly popular and he became immensely wealthy. In spite of his success he was denied membership of the
Royal Academy
, this being a reflection of his unpopularity with his fellow-artists (his admiration for Blake was the saving grace in an otherwise unsavoury character).

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

linocut
.

A technique of making a print from a piece of thick linoleum. It was introduced at the begining of the 20th cent., but is essentially a development of the
woodcut
, although linocuts are much simpler to make because the material is soft and grainless and therefore comparatively easy to work. Linocutting has been much used for teaching art in schools, and this has caused it to be somewhat lightly regarded, but artists of the stature of
Matisse
and
Picasso
have made memorable use of it. Both of them took up the technique in the late 1930s. For colour prints it has obvious advantages, since a number of large blocks may be used without undue expense, while the fact that the surface can be cut rapidly and spontaneously means that the process is highly suitable for big prints boldly conceived.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

linseed oil
.

Oil from the seeds of flax, the commonest
medium
in
oil painting
. Most modern painters have used raw linseed oil diluted with
turpentine
as a medium, but the Old Masters generally preferred polymerized oil, known as ‘stand oil’, which was prepared by heating linseed oil or drying it in the sun. Linseed oil tends to turn yellow with age, but has less tendency to crack than either
walnut
or
poppy oil
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1702–89).
Swiss
pastel
painter and engraver. He travelled widely in Europe and also spent 4 years in Constantinople (1738–42), after which he adopted Turkish dress and beard, his eccentric appearance being familiar from his numerous self-portraits. His delicate and polished style brought him fashionable success in Paris, the Netherlands, and England, which he twice visited (1733–5 and 1772–4). The best collection of his work is in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva, his native city.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search