Temperamental Technologies
Is there a phlegmatic quality to printmaking, especially reproductive printmaking—its careful thinking in reverse, its slow process of carving an image into a copper plate or a wood block? Is there something choleric about the destruction required to produce an image—the immersion of an etching plate in acid, the gouging of a woodblock—even as these processes also demand self-control?
Held and passed from hand to hand, the early modern print was not simply experienced as an image, but as a fully material object. Thus, the image’s subject matter would not be the only element informing the interpretation of a print’s temperament. The hard stippling of a wood engraving might add a choleric severity to Fritz Eichenberg’s impression of otherwise phlegmatic men; while the dry, charcoal-like gradation of tone could lend a choleric heat to William Gropper’s lithograph of a hysteric.
The reproducible nature of prints meant that multiple impressions of a single image exist, but the quality of each impression varies. At Bryn Mawr, we have three prints of Dürer's engraving, St. Christopher; but not all these images are the same. One figure faces left, while two face right; thus, they could not have been made from the same plate. The original print was likely traced and then reproduced in reverse for the purposes of mass-production of the saint’s image. The print with the figure facing left has better tonal quality and more distinct lines than the other two engravings; research reveals that it faces the same direction as Dürer's original engraving.
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- After Albrecht Dürer (German 1471-1528), St. Christopher Facing Left (1521). Engraving, monogram in plate, copy in reverse, X.402.
- William Gropper (American, 1897-1977), Hysteria II. Lithograph, edition 25/100, signed twice in plate, postmortem impression signed in pencil below image by Sophie Gropper, 2012.27.656.
- Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), St. Christopher Facing Left (1521). Engraving; monogram in plate; Gift of Eleanor May Morris, Class of 1941, MA 1970, in honor of Carol Biba, Head of Public Relations, Bryn Mawr College, 1950-1972; 2007.9.3.
- Ernst Barlach (German, 1870-1938), Barmherziger Samariter (The Good Samaritan) (1919). Woodcut; monogram in plate; Gift of Jacqueline Koldin Levine, Class of 1946, and Howard H. Levine, 2012.27.141.
- Allen Lewis (American, 1873-1957), Woodblock for Pruning Hands (1931). Wooblock, Gift of Dorothy S. Jayne (MSS 1960) and DeWitt Whistler Jayne, 1983.1.222.
- Allen Lewis (American, 1873-1957), Plate for Still Life with Tree and Horse (c. 1947). Drypoint plate, Gift of Dorothy S. Jayne (MSS 1960) and DeWitt Whistler Jayne, 1983.1.230
- Asa Cheffetz (American, 1896-1965); Reflection in Crystal (c. 1945); published by the Woodcut Society, 1946. Wood engraving in black, signed in pencil, on loan from Mitchell Cohn (HC, Class of 1980).
- Maurits Cornelis Escher (Belgian, 1898-1972), Self-Portrait in Spherical Mirror (1950). Woodcut, signed in pencil & in block, self-printed on homemade paper, Bool 1982, on loan from Mitchell Cohn (HC, Class of 1980).
- After Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), St. Christopher Facing Left (1521). Engraving, monogram and date in plate, copy in reverse, X.342.
- Bolton Caldwell Moïse Jr. (American, 1905-1989), Château de Chillon (20th century). Etched copper plate, X.355.i.
- Bruno Héroux (German, 1868-1944), Printer (late-19th—mid-20th century). Etching, signed in pencil below image, Gift of Richard E. Bishop in memory of Mary E. Harrington, 1962.62.
- Anders Zorn (Swedish, 1860-1920), Zorn and His Wife (1890). Etching; signed in pencil below plate; Gift of Clarissa Compton Dryden, Class of 1932, MA 1935; 1988.3.
- Allen Lewis (American, 1873-1957), Drypoint Needle, (early 20th century). Gift of Dorothy S. Jayne (MSS 1960) and DeWitt Whistler Jayne, 1983.1.232.f
- Allen Lewis (American, 1873-1957), Pruning Hands (1931). Published in Rachel Field, Calico Bush (New York: Macmillan, 1931); Gift of Dorothy S. Jayne (MSS 1960) and DeWitt Whistler Jayen, 1983.1.173.a.
- Allen Lewis (American, 1873-1957), Pruning Hands (1931). Woodcut, Gift of Dorothy S. Jayne (MSS 1960) and DeWitt Whistler Jayne, 1983.1.173.b.
- Allen Lewis (American, 1873-1957), Burin (early 20th century). Gift of Dorothy S. Jayne (MSS 1960) and DeWitt Whistler Jayne, 1983.1.232.a.
- Allen Lewis (American, 1873-1957), Burin (early 20th century). Gift of Dorothy S. Jayne (MSS 1960) and DeWitt Whistler Jayne, 1983.1.232.b.
- Bolton Caldwell Moïse Jr. (American, 1905-1989), Château de Chillon (20th century). Etching, X.355.b.#2.
- Lewis (Pruning, block)
- Lewis (Still, plate)
- Moise Jr.
- Todd_Cheffetz_Escher
- Fritz Eichenberg (German-American, 1901-1990), Untitled (1969). Wood engraving; signed in pencil; Gift of Mary Patterson McPherson, President of Bryn Mawr College, 1978-1997; 2018.35.13
- Allen Lewis (American, 1873-1957), Drypoint Needle (early 20th century). Gift of Dorothy S. Jayne (MSS 1960) and DeWitt Whistler Jayne, 1983.1.232.e
- Allen Lewis (American, 1873-1957), Still Life with Tree and Horse (c. 1947). Drypoint, Gift of Dorothy S. Jayne (MSS 1960) and DeWitt Whistler Jayne, 1983.1.180
- Allen Lewis (American, 1873-1957), Gouge (early 20th century). Gift of Dorothy S. Jayne (MSS 1960) and DeWitt Whistler Jayne, 1983.1.232.d.
- Bolton Caldwell Moïse Jr. (American, 1905-1989), Château de Chillon (20th century). Etching, X.355.d.#7.
- Barlach_Gropper
- James G. Todd, Jr. (American, b. 1937), Owl Man (2004). Wood engraving, edition 13/60, signed in pencil and with stamp, On loan from Mitchell Cohn (HC, Class of 1980).